Stardust
by Amerilo
Summary: COMPLETE. Set at the end of Rogue One, A Star Wars Story. This is one version of what might have happened if Cassian and Jyn survived the battle of Scarif. Fun, adventurous, and a bit romantic. I'm a big Star Wars fan so I love playing with and respecting the characters.
1. Chapter 1

BOOM

The Death Star released its concentrated, destructive power, and planetary demise was eminent from where Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor stood. Seeing no way out of their current situation, they wrapped their arms around each other in a crushing embrace, along the shore line of Scarif's lake.

But the explosion did not quite reach them. A shockwave still flattened them to the ground for what seemed like an impossibly long time.

Buffeted by intense heat, sharp sand, and whatever else made up the projectiles hitting her body, Jyn closed her eyes, wrapped her right arm around Cassian's curled up form and buried her face in his shoulder as she waited for the end. Breathing was intensely difficult. It seemed as though all of the oxygen across the entire planet was being sucked away from them. Gasping and fighting against her bodily instincts to lift her face and draw a deep breath, Jyn blacked out.

The end never came.

Jyn was not sure what woke her, she only knew she was conscious. What manner of consciousness though? She had never died before. Was she dead? Everything was black and eerily still. Was this what death was supposed to be like? Dark? Painful? Not fair. It shouldn't be so painful…

Gradually, as if turning up the dial on a radio, her ears started ringing as sound began to register again. Her skin pricked with heat. Her scalp felt as though it were on fire. Her legs felt as though they had been pounded by heavy hammers. In fact, her whole body felt as though it had been trampled by a stampede of wild banthas. But she was aware of herself and her body. She was alive. Alive? She should be dead after an explosion like that! As she continued to assess her current situation, Jyn was not sure what was wrong with her eyes. They were stuck shut. _Move…do something. Anything._ She willed herself groggily. She considered going back to sleep to escape the hurt and the pain.

 _No!_ She commanded her eyes to open. They stung, but obeyed and as her eyelashes separated from a sticky glue of tears and sand. She blinked slowly, her eyelashes brushing up against course cloth. She had her face pressed against something or some hard form. Where was she? Instantly her mind began to light up and the past few moments of the battle rushed back to her. As the memories flooded her she slowly raised her head from Cassian's shoulder, and slid her aching hands under her chest. Every move was an effort. She felt as though her body was not her own, but like a droid's, responding to poor motor signal commands. But she pressed her upper torso up and rolled to her side.

Cassian! He was still curled in a fetal position beside her. He lay still. So still. Was he alive? He had to be! Jyn pushed herself up onto her knees and reached for him. Careful not to jostle him too much, she managed to roll him onto his back.

"Cassian! Cassian? Can you hear me?" she tried to speak but her voice came out in a cracked whisper. Her chest heaved with hot, dry coughs. Her throat felt like it had an entire bag of sand stuffed in it. Her lips burned when she tried to form words. "Cassian?" She bent over his chest and checked his vital signs. He had a very faint pulse, but when she held her palm over his face, she could feel him expel an occasional breath. He was alive, but barely. Injured and badly sunburnt, like herself. She needed to get him sheltered.

Peeling herself up into an upright position, Jyn stood on wobbly legs and scanned her surroundings for the first time. Her vision spun, and it took her a long moment for her eyes to take in the scene and interpret her new reality.

The beach was stripped bare. Standing, she was the tallest item on this section of the planet's surface for miles. She could see a hazy horizon, and nothing else moved. Scarif was unrecognizable. Dusty, sandy, stretching on forever. She could have been on Tatooine for all she knew. Gone were the tall palms, beaches, and rivers she had seen on their arrival. Rocky lumps, mangled remains of buildings and ships, and sand—so much sand stretched in every direction. Even the lake her and Cassian had collapsed beside was gone, the water either evaporated or blown away.

Jyn squinted against the sun and the breeze that stirred. How much time had passed? How would she get off the planet? She shook her head violently, which caused her to throw up the scant contents of her stomach and see stars. _Let's not do that again…_ She thought, as she reeled and righted her footing. She needed to get Cassian out of the elements. She blinked rapidly and squinted again, turning in a slow circle. There. A fallen AT-AT Walker, its head blown off, lying on its side. It looked to be at least a hundred yards away, but it was the closest thing to shelter in this boiling desert that she could see.

She dropped to her knees beside Cassian again, blinking away another nauseating head rush as she inspected him more closely. He had a massive gut wound, but the think gash had long ago crusted over. A blaster bolt scarred his upper left arm, and his right knee was swollen to twice it's normal size. The foot beneath it was twisted at an odd angle that almost had Jyn retching. Giant purple bruises covered his body. She wasn't sure if he had sustained all of that from his fall down the metal girders in the Citadel, or if he had been his with some of the shrapnel she had felt herself in the blast. Every exposed area of skin—especially the back of his neck—was badly sunburnt.

So, he was bruised and broken but he might survive the move. Anything was better than lying for dead in the hot sun. Jyn stumbled as she maneuvered herself, grabbed Cassian under his armpits and pulled.

"Gaaaaaaa!" She gasped as her battered and bruised muscles screamed and the burnt skin on her knuckles cracked. She bit her lip and winced again as her teeth did nothing good for the salty, swollen skin there. She laughed bitterly as she imagined she must look like quite a sorry sight right now…

She hooked her arms underneath Cassian's shoulders and tried again, this time grabbing two handfuls of his shirt for good measure. She pulled, shuddering against the pain, but she was able to move him this time, dragging him slowly across the sand on his back. She could do this. She was all he had, this close to death's doorstep. She _had_ to drag him all the way to that AT-AT. So she did, in between moments of rest where she dropped her hold on him and fell to her knees in the sand, panting hard for breath, head reeling even as she fought to keep from letting the darkness claim her.

When they reached the welcoming shadow of the huge walker, Jyn left Cassian in the shade and leaned heavily against the hot metal plating beside him, sliding down to a seated position. Water. Food. Medical care. She needed all this and more for him or he would die. He would die and leave her all alone on this barren planet.


	2. Chapter 2

Jyn wanted to pass out. Instead, against her body's protests she heaved herself back to her feet and scanned the mutilated horizon. _Water…water._ Her mind spun. Her eyes glazed and went out of focus. _Keep it together Jyn, you have to stay conscious. Look…look. Really look. What do you see? What can you use? What can you possibly survive on?_

Jyn walked around the fallen AT-AT and focused instantly on a leafy pile of shambles. Palms! She had heard palms and other desert plants held water, and although she was certainly no expert on the various alien breeds and what grew on which planets, one could hope…

She stumbled over and inspected a torn tree trunk. Not a single intact tree had survived. Instead splinters of several trees were tossed here and there, mixed up with rocks, warped slabs of metal, and scraps of charred trooper armor. Jyn roamed awkwardly over the pile, until she reached a palm trunk. It was covered with thick spines as large as her hand, growing upward like short spears reaching for the sky. She grabbed a spine and heaved on it, peeling it slowly off of the trunk.

The spines were certainly stubborn, but she pulled harder, heedless of her cracked, bleeding hands until she had a round, clear patch of exposed trunk underneath. Jyn dug her throbbing fingernails into the soft, spongy wood, and scrapped out a trench. The deeper she went, the cooler and softer the wood felt to her touch. This was promising! She continued until she pried out a chunk deep within the tree that looked moist. She quickly brought the piece of soft plant to her lips. Heaven! Just the velvety touch against her burned lips was a relief, and if she sucked hard on the sponge, she could get a few sips of water. It tasted acidic and dirty, but she couldn't complain too much. Not if it was better than nothing. She would need more chunks though, and she would need to get some of them into Cassian somehow. Jyn took off her padded combat vest and used it to put the pieces of moist tree trunk on as she pried more hunks out.

Once she had a dozen well-earned tree pieces, she gathered the vest around them to keep them wet and cool, and half walked, half crawled back around the walker to Cassian. He was still spread eagle on his back, lying in the dark shadow the AT-AT cast, exactly how she had left him.

She hadn't stopped panting, and her hands hadn't stopped bleeding. She peeled her fingerless gloves off, since her hands were swelling inside the fabric. Even with them off, her fingers were clumsy; trembling from exhaustion and the torture she had put them through as she brushed Cassian's hair out of his eyes and knelt by him. She tilted his head back to ensure some water would get in his throat, and proceeded to squeeze the woody pulp as hard a she could between her hands until a few drops of murky water fell into his mouth. A few drops missed and fell on his cracked lips. Using her thumb, she gently spread the drops around his mouth and chin, hoping it would alleviate some of his pain. She squeezed water until her hands screamed and her heart hammered from the strain, but she pressed those pulp chunks for every bit of moisture, and went back for more tree pieces twice.

Once she felt she could walk no more, she rolled Cassian onto his right side, and using her teeth, shredded the moist tree into a pulp that she patted onto the back of his burnt neck. It only took her a moment to find a sharp scrap of metal and use it to cut his shirt apart down the front. She covered his exposed chest and hands with more moist palm tree pulp. It wasn't a medicinal poultice by any means, but she hoped it would do something for his injuries. Her head was pounding again, and her ears felt strangely plugged up. She wasn't surprised this time when she passed out from exhaustion.

When she came to again night had fallen on Scarif, and the wind had lessened to a gentle but humid breeze. She wrinkled her nose, her skin feeling blistered and sore as she moved on rusted limbs to lean over Cassian's head.

"Cassian?" she asked. Her voice was actually above a whisper now, but still sounded wretched. "Cassian?" She cleared her throat and forced herself to hum a few bars of a mindless tune. Her fingers reached for his neck and felt for his pulse. Yes, he was still with her. Perhaps she could bring him back into the world of the living if she talked to him long enough.

"Cassian? Casssssssssian!" She sang his name over and over again, her voice becoming louder the more she used it, until she was able to bark into his face and shake his shoulders. She dared not slap or otherwise jostle him for fear of his injuries. After about 20 minutes of commanding him to wake up, she gave up and slumped back against the AT-AT, falling into a restless sleep.

She felt as if she had closed her eyes for only a minute when she felt a nudge against her leg. Her eyes flew open. Cassian was trying to nuzzle her thigh with his the top of his head.

"Cassian!" she breathed, happiness rushing through her as she and peered at him. His eyes were still closed, and he lay still. Had she imagined it? Was she beginning to hallucinate now?

"Cassian?" she asked again, to make sure. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and his fingers curled. That was the most response he gave her. But he was conscious! He probably needed water. Feeling miraculously energized all of the sudden, Jyn hopped up.

"Cassian, I'm here. I'm right here with you. We're still on Scarif, and it's nighttime. I'll get you some more water. I know it probably tastes like crap, but it's because it's from the meat of a palm tree." He made no reply, just inhaled deeply, wincing as if the very act of filling his chest with air pained him. "I'll be right back." Jyn promised, impulsively planting a feathery kiss on his forehead before hastening to the debris pile and tearing into the palm trees again.

She returned with several more chunks, freshly carved from a new tree. They were cool from the night air leaking into everything. The temperature was gradually dropping. How cold did Scarif get at night? How dense was its atmosphere? She had no idea if being burned or frozen was preferable, but for now her skin welcomed the change in temperature.

"Cassian, I'm going to tilt your head back and give you this water. Try to swallow some sips. It's only a trickle, but it's all we've got." She kept chattering, forgetting everything else as she concentrated on squeezing palm tree pulp into her friend's mouth. She continued a steady stream of mindless rambling, in the hopes that it would keep him awake.

She fed him as much water as she could. Then she applied more wet bark to his sunburned neck and changed the patches on his chest too. Scarif had four moons hovering in the sky, which shed an eerie light on them, so she was able to re-inspected Cassian. She was pleased that his face had been mostly shielded from the sun and debris, and rightly so, since they had been flattened face down when the blast hit. His hands were in good shape too. She certainly wasn't the best nurse, and now that her mind was alert, she began to worry about his wounds being infected already, and about her non-existent plan to get off world, and rejoin the Rebellion.

"Cassian, can you talk at all? Can you tell me anything?" she murmured, dabbing moist tree pieces against his forehead as her left hand tentatively stroked his shoulder. "Can you please talk to me? I know there's something broken in your right knee or foot, but I have no idea how to fix it. Do you have any ideas? Can you tell me what hurts?"

Cassian drew a deep, shaking breath, and coughed raggedly once. She froze as he moaned with the movement, then one of his eyes opened as he whispered:

"Everything hurts…"

Jyn laughed inappropriately, mainly out of relief that he had spoken. She cupped his face in her hands, kissing the tip of his nose and forehead and smoothing invisible strands of hair off of his temples before remembering herself and stopping with a blush


	3. Chapter 3

"How can I fix you?" Jyn began, her eyes roaming to Cassian's twisted foot again. He hadn't seemed to mind her display of affection. She scooted on her rump to sit by his legs instead of his head, and touched his ankle, pinching it carefully with her thumbs and pinky fingers.

Cassian's eyebrow came together sharply, so she stopped, and moved to his torso. She removed some of the tree bark covering his stomach and placed her fingers on the scabbed gash.

"What does this feel like? Is your gut on fire? Am I hurting you?"

Cassian flinched and sighed.

"No…"

"No what?" she pressed, reaching for his right arm and gently rolling up his sleeve to the point where she knew he had a blaster wound.

"Sheeeesh!" Cassian whined in pain, eyes still closed. She would tease him about that whimper later, when he was recovered.

"I need to see what this looks like." She insisted, taking her makeshift knife out of her waist where she had stashed it. She proceeded to cut off his shirt sleeve, and poke gingerly around the blaster wound. It was an ugly color, small, but the blood had dried into a crusty mess. She would need to clean the wound to see what the real damage was.

"What happened to everyone else?" Cassian groaned softly. Jyn blinked rapidly. She didn't know what to say, besides the truth, no matter how much that hurt.

"I honestly don't know. The Citadel is completely destroyed. We limped away from it to the beach, but I really don't know if Bodhi, Chirruit, Baze, or any of the other Rogues were still fighting below—or if they…got away."

Cassian sighed deeply, still complaining in his throat the more she poked and prodded at him.

"Well, I've done a full diagnostic, and I'm afraid I have some bad news, sir. Your mood is terrible, and your leg and your arm will need to be chopped off." Jyn quipped, trying to lighten the mood as she clapped her hands together and groaned to her feet.

Cassian's mouth slowly crooked into a half smile.

"Stay awake, Cassian. Stay with me. Please?" she pleaded. He acknowledged by balling his fingers into fists.

Jyn made a few trips to the palm tree. Feeling inspired, she used a rather large palm thorn as a bowl to squeeze water into, then soaked the cleanest scrap of Cassian's shirt sleeve.

"Just remember I don't actually like hurting you," she whispered, as she dabbed first at his arm wound, cleaning away the dried blood despite his winces and mumbled curses. She cleaned around his gut wound too. The most difficult part was removing Cassian's boot from his twisted right foot, when he actually cried out and begged her to stop. But, heart racing, she ignored him and gradually pried the boot all the way off, rolling up his pant leg to inspect his knee and foot. Cassian had broken into a sweat, even though she was sure the night air was cold enough.

"I'm sorry. I really am." She murmured, shushing and soothing him as her fingers roved over his leg. "Is it broken or sprained?" she sat back on her heels and looked at the man lying in front of her. He was quiet now, and very still. "Cassian?" No response. "Cassian? You need to talk to me. I'm not a doctor—"

"I think we established that." He replied, eyes closed.

"Stay awake." She commanded stubbornly. "Tell me what to do. I'm sure this isn't the first scrape you've found yourself in. What's wrong with your leg? The sooner we fix you up, the sooner we can get off of this forsaken planet."

That seemed to do the trick. Cassian blinked, turned his head to the side, and looked at her—really looked at her—for the first time that evening. His eyes were bloodshot and haunted with exhaustion, but to Jyn they were still beautiful. She felt warmer just staring into those dark brown depths.

"Try to feel a—a little deeper." Cassian way saying, "Use your fingers to prod around my knee, to find odd lumps, and my ankle, look for lumps there too. I'll try not to make a sound."

Jyn did as he asked, and although Cassian made a manly effort, he face still contorted in agony and he groaned as she scoped his leg.

"Without knowing what I'm feeling…" Jyn shook her head in frustration, "I don't feel anything too odd. You knee is smooth but…spongy, and your ankle is a mystery. There's lumps all over."

"Fine. Fine. It hurts like daggers when you do that. Let me try moving it myself." Cassian concentrated, seeming to battle with himself over the decision, as his knee flexed but his leg only rose an inch before he gasped and stopped moving again.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and breathed through his teeth for a long while, fighting the pain. "Great idea. That was…a great idea, Jyn. Why didn't you try to stop me?"

Jyn chuckled lightly, waiting.

"I think my ankle is broken." Cassian announced, opening his eyes. "I can't move it, and when I do, it feels so bad I'd rather be—"

"Shut up." Jyn frowned, giving him a hard look. "Ok. So we know a little more. I think from the surface, your blaster wound will heal if we can get you to into some bacta to work out the dirt and infection, and your gut seems to be just a flesh wound too, better than I imagined."

"Oh yeah? You think my gut looks better than you imagined?" Cassian pretended to look innocently surprised.

Jyn waved a hand at him, smirking.

"Actually, it hurts like a walker stepped on me and shattered my spine while he was at it." Cassian protested.

"Fine." Jyn nodded. "That's enough for now. I'll get some more water for you, and then go back to sleep to heal."

Cassian didn't argue. He was already losing the battle to stay awake, his eyes drooping as she worked to collect the precious water. When he fell asleep, she gathered some water herself and tried chewing on some of the foul tasting palm mulch. But couldn't swallow it, and finally lay down beside him to sleep.

 _What do you think? Please leave a review! These first chapters will be full of healing. Then things start to shake up. I'm trying to portray Jyn and Cassian as close to their original characters as possible. Not sure how humorous Cassian would be, but I think he could have cracked jokes if he wasn't so focused on Rogue One's mission._


	4. Chapter 4

Jyn woke to the unforgiving hot sun once again, and discovered that with the planet's rotation, she and Cassian were now on the wrong side of the AT-AT's available shade. Cassian was still sleeping, his uninjured arm thrown over his face, and she hated to disturb him when he had so much healing to do.

So she sucked some water, experimented with eating some of the wilting green fronds of the palms and discovered she could stomach them if she chewed a long time. She decided to start scavenging in earnest and see how long her energy lasted. Her luck had to change sooner or later.

She still felt weak from injury and raging hunger. She used a little of the precious water to make a plaster of mud and spread it over her face and arms in the hopes of protecting herself from further burns. She returned from her trek away from the AT-AT and came back to Cassian with a handful of finds.

He was awake, much to her delight, although he hadn't moved from last night's position.

"Good morning, sleepy head." She told him. "Sweet dreams?"

"The sweetest." He slurred groggily, but he also locked eyes with her as he said it in a way that made her heart jump with wonder. She was momentarily mesmerized into silence by his spell as they stared at each other. Then she blinked rapidly, dropped her armful of treasures, and went to get him some water.

It took her a lot longer to get a thornful of water from the palm wood, because the sun was doing its best to dry out the trees and her efforts.

"You know, I owe you—" Cassian croaked out, but she immediately shushed him and lifted the water to his lips, making him drink.

"How do you feel? And don't think I'm being cruel by asking." She said.

"I have a pounding headache. My arm feels swollen, my ankle has a heartbeat of its own, and my gut has a warm fire inside." He reported, patiently.

Jyn pulled apart the remnants of his shirt from his chest, and frowned at his gut wound, which was stabilized, in her opinion. He must be infected or perhaps bleeding internally? How could she tell?

"See? Must have been just a scratch." She grinned, covering him up again and trying to hide her worry.

He opened his mouth to say something, but she jumped up and rummaged through her pile of finds, talking all the while.

"I don't think I'll move you again, so I thought we'd make a shelter from the sun today." She began. "I found this piece of torn canvas, and if I hammer it to the AT-AT with rocks or something, it should hold over you. I also got some shale stones to pin the bottom down to the sand. We'll see how it works. I found some poor soul's utility belt, or what's left of it anyways." She ran a ragged piece of black fabric through her hands, and dug her fingers into the little fitted pouches, exploring. "It's better than my empty blaster holster. We've got a few odds and ends in here, the best part being this stick of rations." And with a grim smile, she broke the dried vegetable stick in half, and handed a piece to Cassian.

He continued to stare at her with those deep eyes, so brown they were nearly black as he gingerly tasted the food. Jyn took it as a good sign that he was able to make that much of an effort and feed himself. She tried not to devour her piece too quickly, for fear of throwing it back up, but it was still gone in three bites. She chanced a glance his way.

"Don't look at me like that."

Cassian broke the stare only to blink.

"I only want to remember your face, Jyn—"

"Shush". She snapped, and turned her gaze back to the horizon, refusing to think of where that morbid thought was going.

Then she went to work setting up their makeshift shelter, experimenting with sharp bits of shrapnel and plant sap to fasten the cloth to the armored walker, using broken poles to hold the sides up and pin the cloth to the sand against the wind with the shale rocks she had collected.

The construction quickly sapped her energy. It was strange, not feeling strong and in control of her own body, but she knew the heat and lack of sustenance was to blame. She felt dried out and wilted.

Cassian had lapsed into sleep again. She held her palm over his nose, her hand hovering to monitor his breathing, and then she softly brushed her lips to his forehead again. She sat up and furrowed her brow, wondering briefly if she should stop the kissing before it got too weird. What if Cassian didn't like her that way? Well, they had been so busy with the mission, she couldn't know for sure. But she could have sworn there was a spark…right?

Necessity took over and she napped herself, and woke up to the cool of Serif's evening again. Cassian was shivering. She swallowed hard as she assessed him. His condition was worsening instead of improving. His clothing was now soaked with cold perspiration and he lolled his head restlessly as he slept.

She blinked back tears that had rapidly sprung to her eyes. No, he couldn't leave her. She had got them this far. They shouldn't be alive right now after the Death Star's attack, but they were, and by the stars, they were going to stay that way.

Jyn crawled out from under the shelter and explored the area around the AT-AT further, finding additional shreds of cloth. She piled them snuggly around Cassian and propped a thin piece under his head too. Then she sat beside him and hugged her knees, rocking slightly. _Think Jyn, think. Break the problem down. You've been alone before. You've started over back when Papa and Ma…_

She shook her head violently. Ok. She certainly wanted to get off world, but she had to get there in small steps. So what could she start with now? She needed to find the closest civilization that had survived the blast, and get Cassian to it. Which meant she needed to scout, and invent something to transport him on without causing him too much more pain.

She could easily make a sled and cushion him with their tarpaulin. So she needed to scout as soon as possible. And perhaps she could spot some lights in the darkness right now!

Quickly Jyn dragged to her feet and took a moment to drink some water before she wrapped herself in a discarded piece of cloth, tied a broken pole over her shoulders as a weapon, and started walking in an ever widening circle away from Cassian and the AT-AT walker.


	5. Chapter 5

Jyn wasn't sure how far she had walked, but estimated her trek at maybe five miles. She sat down hard on a rock outcrop, looking around and catching her breath. Her head spun.

The Scarif night was beautiful in a desolate, eerie way. She had reached a cliff face that looked awfully like a recently dried up water fall. Stupid Death Star and its overinflated destructive power…did its operators even feel guilty when they hit the release buttons?

Even under cover of night, Jyn could not spot any lights or signs of civilization around. How far would she have to go to find help? Was it even possible? She would have to move Cassian this direction too. They had to get down this cliff somehow, and travel through the rolling plains and sloping hills below. And even then, she was not sure if that was the direction of civilization.

She needed a sign. A clear sign on which way to head across the merciless curve of Scarif's horizon. She did not want to pick a direction and embark on a wild chase for fear that would leave her spent and exhausted, and Cassian…no, Cassian might not make it. They could not stay camped by the AT-AT forever, so she had to have a clear plan.

Although she was tired and still had to return the five miles back to Cassian, Jyn rose and started walking further, along the edge of the steep cliff. A canyon snaked below. She kept wiping the perspiration from her face, sweating despite the cool night. Then she saw hope in the form of a dark smoke curl. She froze, staring and blinking to make sure she was not hallucinating. She smiled.

There, lazily rising against the backdrop of one of Scarif's setting moons, was a column of smoke. Well, it could be a city or village, it could be some smoldering battle wreckage, but whatever it was, there certainly had to be more opportunity there than the stripped section of the desert she and Cassian occupied right now.

She took her bearings, and made a plan to move Cassian here. Now all she had to do was make a comfortable sled for him out of whatever debris she could find.

The next evening, after spending the worst heat of the day resting in the shelter with Cassian, who remained feverish and incoherent, Jyn moved him with much effort to the cobbled sled she had made of an armored spaceship plate, cushioned with fabric and complete with straps to keep Cassian secured in it.

She had nothing to carry water in, even though she would have liked to take some with her. So she sucked moisture out of several palm tree pieces.

Sighing, Jyn hefted herself up and grabbed the strings of the sled, turning away from the cliff side to the retreating shadow of Scarif's moon and put one foot in front of the other again.

She walked, dragging Cassian's sled with her head bent, counting her steps to pass the time, and only looking up occasionally to check her progress. They were still advancing toward the smoke stream, only now it looked thicker than yesterday. It wasn't a lazy curl anymore, but a large grey pillar spewing into the dark sky, drawing a think swatch against Scarif's moon.

Jyn had no idea what the moon's name was, nor did she care. She only gripped the sled harder with her callused fingers, and checked the security of the staff tied to her back with her left hand, as she tried to swallow the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was wrong.

She had to keep going though, right? There might be other people here. There might be help for Cassian. Should she scout ahead?

Jyn paused and dropped the handles of Cassian's sled. She pushed him behind an outcrop of scorched brush and crept forward, climbing the sandy hill that the tall column of smoke rose from. She reached the top and peaked over, and was surprised to be peered down at a modest village, dimly lighted and nestled in a thick circle of palms and muddy soil. An oasis of sorts?

She could see a large fire burning from the center, where a large crowd of draped and masked creatures and humans moved around, shouting indistinctly. A celebration? A war dance? What would they think of her and Cassian? She glanced behind her into the dark where she knew she had stashed her friend. They couldn't stay on their own though. He needed help. She needed to take a leap of faith, no matter how reluctant and uneasy she felt.

Jyn scrambled back down the hill, retrieved Cassian's sled, and started dragging him toward the village. She opted to pull him in a longer path around the hill, instead of risk a disaster sliding him down a steep incline at a rapid pace. She plodded toward the lights. As she neared the civilians, her peripheral vision caught movement to her left, and three dark figures moved out from behind palm trunks, loping toward her.

"Ahi!" One of them called, raising a long spear decorated with a string of leaves and feathers. She did not stop. Two other figures flanked the figure, walking faster as she continued her progress with the sled.

"Ahi!" They said again, coming up in front of her and lowering their spears. They were human, dark skinned and artfully decorated with light swaths of clothing and tattoos. Jyn, panting to catch her breath, lowered her eyes and bowed her head to the warriors, hoping her posture would show them she meant no harm. She kept her grip on Cassian's sled.

"Please," she said. "Do you speak Basic?" she risked a glance up at the powerfully built man in the middle. "Basic?" she repeated, her voice a raspy.

"Ne nah je aki." The middle warrior frowned. He brandished his weapon again.

Jyn dropped the pole slung on her back, and knelt in the sand. She pointed to Cassian then clenched her hands around her throat.

"Help!" She croaked. "Water!" She held her empty hands out in front of her, and indicated that her potential weapon, her pole was gone, as she tossed it a few yards to the side. "We just need help."


	6. Chapter 6

The warriors glanced at each other. One of them circled Jyn and the sled. He poked the sled with the blunt end of his spear, and leaned down to study Cassian. The lighting was poor although dawn was surely approaching. Jyn hoped the blood stains remaining on Cassian's clothing would assure this stranger of their predicament. He must have liked something he saw, because he grunted, spoke to the other two men, and then motioned roughly for Jyn to follow him.

She rose gratefully to her feet and gripped the sled ropes again, trudging after the men through an opening in the trees and into the clearing. Half of the crowd reveling around the huge bonfire stared at her as the group made their way around the center of the oasis and toward a trio of square buildings squatting to the left.

Jyn didn't say anything and kept her head bent, although her ears strained to pick up Basic in the crowd as she followed the three warriors.

They arrived at the front of a round hut constructed with clay and covered with a roof of woven sticks. Jyn felt colder in this valley, and registered that her feet felt damp from the walk through the village. Good, they must have water here. That was one plus.

Two of the warriors stood on either side of her, staring at her with their sharp beady eyes and holding their spears tightly. The third ducked inside the hut and called out in the clipped language she did not understand.

A human woman fifty years Jyn's senior slowly walked out of the hut, and inclined her head toward Jyn.

"Aki ma ka kai yonna?" she asked, piercing Jyn with a severe stare.

Jyn spread her hands again, and kept her body language loose and relaxed, which wasn't hard, considering how exhausted she was.

"I don't understand you, but please, help me and my friend."

The woman sighed, crossed her thick arms over her chest, and regarded Jyn for a moment before barking words at the men and pointing to Cassian. In a joint motion, two of the warriors bent and picked up Cassian between them.

"Be careful! He's injured! His ankle is broken!" Jyn screeched, rushing towards them, but a spear jumped in front of her face as the third warrior stopped her in her tracks. Panting, she watched as the men and the dark skinned woman disappeared into the hut. She lurched forward to follow, but the remaining warrior yelled something and blocked her, pointing and growling. She froze, her heart racing as she debated what to do. Not being able to see Cassian was driving her absolutely crazy.

The warrior kicked at her sled, and then poked at her chest with her spear, making a motion with his free arm toward the sky. Jyn's eyes darted from the man to the doorway of the hut, but she had a feeling that if she bolted, he would stab her. What did he want then? She slowly raised both arms in the air. Maybe that would help.

Looking pleased, the giant of a man discarded his spear, and stepped forward to pat her body roughly, taking her utility belt and her vest with him. Jyn's face burned as his hands moved over her body but she stood very still, feeling a little remorse at the loss of her items, and hoping that it gained her entry into the hut with Cassian.

It did. The warrior seemed satisfied that she was unarmed, and nudged her toward the hut with his toe. She rushed into the dark doorway only to be clotheslined and knocked onto her back by what must have one of the other warriors guarding the door. The wind was knocked out of her.

Furious, Jyn rose, trembling and prepared to fight, but the elder woman came over and waved a hand at the over-protective guard, dismissing him. She called Jyn toward the back of the small one roomed building, and the warrior, his eyes flashing in the dark, left them. Legs shaking, Jyn walked further into the dimly lit hut, allowing her eyes to adjust. There was only one torch lighting the building, staked into the soft sand in the middle of the room.

She quickly spotted Cassian laid out on a straw pallet along the wall, and even though she wanted to push the older woman aside and rush toward him, she made herself walk to avoid getting attacked again.

"Cassian!" she croaked, reaching him and running the back of her hand along his face. He was still unconscious, unaware of her or his new surroundings. The other woman approached, holding a small bowl in each hand, and babbling to Jyn in her strange language.

Although she did not comprehend what the woman was saying, Jyn took the offered bowls and sniffed them tentatively. One was water, the other was a spicy paste she did not trust. She perched on the wooden edge of the pallet beside Cassian and tilted his head up to make him drink some water. The woman continued to talk and gesture—nothing threatening. She looked clearly annoyed as she pointed to the bowls, to Cassian, and then to herself.

Jyn felt her heart racing. Was the woman a healer? Would she hurt or help Cassian? What did she want to do with him? How could she trust her? Jyn's breathing quickened, distress flashing across her face.

"Do you speak Basic?" she asked wistfully, staring at the woman and leaning her own body protectively over Cassian, "Basic?" she asked louder. The healer frowned and jabbered faster, waving her hands around the room.

Well this was getting her nowhere. Jyn hesitated a moment longer, then slowly stepped back from Cassian, holding her hands to her chest in a pleading gesture.

The woman glared at Jyn and picked up her bowls. She swiftly began to examine Cassian, lifting his eyelids and assessing his injuries. Jyn slumped against the cold clay wall and watched, butterflies moving in her stomach.

She watched the woman pour liquids down Cassian's throat, set and wrap his right ankle, and clean and apply a thick layer of dark paste on his stomach wound and the blaster wound on his upper right arm. Lastly, she ground fibers and plants and sprinkled the pieces into a small pot of black liquid, letting them float on the top. She set the liquid on fire and set it to burn on a little shelf between Cassian's bedside and another empty pallet. A sweet aroma arose from the bowl.

The healer shot Jyn a sharp glance and walked toward her. She proceeded to examine Jyn quickly for injuries, lifting Jyn's long sleeve shirt and patting along Jyn's pants. Seeming to find nothing too serious, she mumbled in her language and left.

Jyn exhaled. She hadn't dared to breath throughout the ritual. Now she slid onto the edge of Cassian's pallet again and sniffed gingerly at him and the medicinal spices that rose off of his bandages. He was breathing steadily. She took his hand in hers, leaned her head against the back wall, and fell into a restless sleep.

 _I know there is a pattern of sleeping and waking going on here, but c'mon, it's hard work surviving with injuries after a major battle! The oasis, the villagers, and the language they speak are OCs of my own imagination. Not sure if there would have been villages on Scarif. The healing will accelerate from here. My story stays in Jyn's perspective, since it is called "Stardust". Leave a review! What do you like? Don't like?_


	7. Chapter 7

The sun blinking in her eyes, and the guttural sounds of speech woke Jyn. She started, alert, and quickly looked around. But she found herself in the same hut as last night, Cassian still lying on the pallet besides her, sleeping, and a little more peacefully at that. Daylight filtered through the wide cracks in the roof, and with it she could see there were five more pallets with lumps of creatures lying on them around the perimeter of the round room.

A blue skinned twi'lek was propped up on a pallet two beds away from Cassian, and was staring at Jyn. One of her headtails, or lekku, was missing, the stub bandaged. Her left arm seemed to be amputated below the elbow also.

Jyn realized she was staring too long and turned away.

"Who are you?" The female twi'lek asked sharply in Basic. Her hard yellow eyes made Jyn squirm.

"I am…Aya." Jyn lied, not wanting to give away her real name right now. "Who are you?"

"Zenji. I heard you come in last night. Mir was pretty annoyed at you."

"Why didn't you speak up if you knew Basic! I had no idea what the healer wanted!" Jyn shot back indignantly, instantly defensive. She glanced down at Cassian as if for support.

"I was trying to sleep through all your commotion last night. You could stand to be a little more polite, taking their hospitality." Zenji drawled. "Poor Mir didn't know if you wanted your hunky friend there to die in peace, or accept her medicinal—"

"Stop." Jyn sighed. "I know what happened." She glanced around the room. The other patients were as still as death on their cots. She decided to change the subject. "What happened to you?"

Zenji's eyes grew dark. "Unlucky. In the wrong place at the wrong time. What did you think?" Before Jyn could answer, the twi'lek lifted her chin haughtily, "Where did you come from?"

"We were caught in the Citadel area when the blast hit." Jyn answered honestly. This twi'lek didn't need to know what part she played in the battle, that she had been sneaking around in the Imperial Citadel Tower, or that she was part of Rogue One and the Rebellion.

"Shame." Zenji flashed her teeth, her gaze raking Jyn up and down. "Your lucky _ayy_ was watching over you. Even your mate is in better shape than I."

Jyn bit her tongue, not bothering to correct the angry twi'lek on her assumption of her and Cassian's relationship.

"My sisters and I were coming into the base…to meet some fishermen. We were riding on a tram when the explosion happened." Zenji continued. "They were killed instantly. The train car collapsed. I was pinned by my arm. Had to cut it off with my own knife to get free."

Jyn swallowed a wave of nausea and blinked rapidly. She had only learned a brief overview of the planet, that it was mainly a fishing industry. It didn't deserve this mess. No one did.

"I'm so sorry for your loss." She murmured. Zenji's stare was fierce and full of hate. Did she suspect Jyn was involved in the battle?

Just then the healer apparently named Mir entered the hut.

"Enyawee." She bowed forward at a slight angle as if in greeting, or blessing and her eyes swept the room before they settled on Jyn. She pursed her lips and moved over to Zenji's cot first, talking to her in that language Jyn had never heard before. Zenji was silent, brooding as Mir changed the twi'lek's bandages and handed her a bowl of steaming liquid to drink.

Then Mir crossed the hut to Jyn, her feet hardly making a sound on the grass strewn floor. She said nothing, seeming to sense that Jyn did not understand nor appreciate her words anyways. Mir bent over Cassian and waved her hand over his face. She frowned, and repeated the gesture. Jyn watched, holding her breath. Was this a ritual too? Or was something wrong with Cassian she hadn't noticed?

Mir started chanting softly as she prepared hot water and began to clean Cassian's exposed skin. She changed his bandages, and replaced the shallow bowl of burning herbs next to him. She showed Jyn that she should create a breeze with her hand to make the herb smoke pass over Cassian's nose. She crooked her finger and urged Jyn to come over and do it. So Jyn did. She felt guilty for snapping at the woman last night, and eager to do anything that might help with the healing process.

As she sat on the edge of Cassian's pallet, Mir stood beside her and briskly cleaned Jyn's grimy face and arms with a cloth and hot water. Jyn almost growled at the rough care, but let the woman work. She winced when Mir sponged some stinging liquids over her sunburnt skin and the many lacerations lacing her arms and hands.

Mir administered to the other four patients in the hut, and made exaggerated hand motions when she discovered that one had died during the night. Two of the male warriors came in at her bidding to carry the body away. Now there were two empty pallets in the room. Jyn wondered what would happen to the deceased, but knew she would never get an answer when she could not communicate in the same language, and Zenji seemed to be in such a foul mood she didn't bother asking the twi'lek to translate.

She spent the day sitting by Cassian, monitoring to his breathing, and making sure the burning herbs diffused over his face. Mir gave her a bowl of watery soup to eat at some point. Jyn devoured it and slept on and off, waking when the evening sun was slanting in through the cracks in the roof. She didn't feel rested at all, and she winced as she realized her limbs stung with cramps from sitting on the hard edge of Cassian's pallet.

"Hey," she leaned down stiffly and whispered into Cassian's left ear. "Are you awake?"

He stirred, and Jyn smiled eagerly, although the action split her dry, sore lips. She waited for more from him, but he must have chosen to sleep.

Convincing herself that healing was best for him anyways, she rose and peered outside. Two guards stood on either side of hut, looking outward. She tiptoed away from the door and went back to sit by Cassian. The twi'lek had her back to Jyn, sleeping or pretending to sleep. Jyn was hungry and overheated. And curious. Very curious. She rolled up her long sleeves and strolled back to the doorway, holding her arms loose at her sides, and crossed the threshold.

No one stopped her. Jyn felt the sharp gaze of the male warriors boring into her back, but she kept her eyes down and strolled slowly toward the big bonfire where she could smell something cooking. She was nearly there when a huge man grabbed her by the elbow and growled at her.

Jyn tried to wrench herself out of his grasp, but she was unable. He had a tight hold and she was still too weak to get the better of him. His meaty hand easily closed around her slender arm. She grimaced and demanded to be set free until another male strode up and communicated with the other one, who finally released her with a small shove.

Jyn staggered but caught her balance, absolutely livid. She glared at the two men, who continued to talk and motion at her. She crossed her arms and tried to stomp off, but one of them grabbed her again, pointing towards the cooking fire, and at himself, smiling shyly. Jyn hissed, not understanding and certainly refusing to acknowledge whatever underlying deal he might be referring to. Forget it. She couldn't get any exploring of the camp done this way. She bolted back to the sick bay.

Over the next couple of days, Jyn learned through limited communications that if she helped clean items in a pile of metal twenty feet from Cassian's hut, she earned a morsel of food and extra water. So she worked as well as she could, scrubbing at the dirt and grime of the salvage until her head would spin with weariness and she quit for the day.

Cassian continued sleeping, under the stubborn care of the dark skinned woman Mir. Jyn's head and heart throbbed, worrying about him, but she tried to keep herself distracted with the scrubbing work since it was something to do and it earned her more food. She needed to get her strength back. She still felt like a shell of her former self.

She did not talk to Zenji during that time. The twi'lek pouted stormily and kept to herself. Two more injured non-humans wandered into the village. One must have been threatening enough that the warriors killed him on the spot. Jyn heard but did not see the violence. The other was admitted and cared for by Mir. Jyn figured this clan of people were getting a lot of injured visitors trickling in from the battle of Scarif. She wished that someone from Rogue One would stumble in, but they never did. The injured people came and went, either on their own accord or in body bags.

On the fifth day, according to Jyn's count, Zenji left, taking with her Jyn's only chance to speak Basic in this village. Not that they were friends anyways, but Jyn still felt a stab of remorse. She could count on one hand the Ryl words she knew, so she felt inclined to say "Ka'ta" (bye-bye) as Zenji limped toward the door. Zenji looked surprised and regarded Jyn for a long moment, before she snorted and replied "Sahak Chir" ("avoid death").

Jyn stayed near Cassian when she could. When she ventured out from the hut due to restlessness, and the many village scouts had brought no salvage to clean, she helped with a variety of menial tasks, especially carrying water from a muddy trench and running bucketfulls of it through layers of cloth to clean it.

The dark skinned villagers watched her uneasily, and there were very few women to interact with. Through careful observation and studying faces inconspicuously, Jyn estimated there were about eighty men and twenty women living in the oasis, coming and going. This number didn't include the handful of non-humans, who seemed to be treated as slaves, doing the same menial tasks she did.

That being the case, Jyn was constantly on the alert. More than once she had shuddered to catch the tall warriors eyeing her in a way that did not scream "friendly". She gave the men a wide berth and kept to herself, avoided eye contact except when necessary, and made sure to work in areas where other women villagers were nearby. She always returned to the medical hut when she was tired or when night fell.

 _I really wanted to play with the twi'lek species, so Zenji is an OC. I looked up the proper Ryl words too! In the next chapter Cassian wakes up and we get into some more action. Thanks for reading!_


	8. Chapter 8

In the hut, Jyn stuck by Cassian and occasionally helped tend to his bandages. She gently sponge bathed his arms, legs and face, glad that he was not conscious to know it. She wouldn't know what to say if he knew anyways. Mir had indicated that the empty pallet by Cassian's head was for Jyn to rest on, but Jyn didn't use it. She wanted to sleep sitting up, leaning against the wall with Cassian's legs snugly pressed against her back. Jyn feared that if she laid on her own pallet, she wouldn't know if anyone took him away from her while she slept.

She knew Cassian was improving when he started to twitch and move on his own, when his face had a healthier color, and when he began to murmur in his dreams.

On the tenth night since she had dragged him—well both of them—into the village, she was sitting at the foot of his cot as usual, her head nodding in fitful sleep when he spoke her name.

Jyn opened her eyes and lolled her head to the side to look at him, still groggy in the sticky depths of sleep. She felt terrible, feverish even.

"Jyn, where are we?" Cassian asked.

"On Scariff. In a little village…" She whispered, cringing as her numb legs responded to her movements. She wanted to wake up further, but her head pounded with an intense headache. She felt like she was living in a fog. So instead of moving, she laid her left hand on Cassian's leg, below his knee, and closed her eyes again. Mercifully, he did not say anything further.

She was in the metal hold on Lah'mu, eight years old again. Curled up in the dark, she waited for her parents to come and get her. They never came. The metal was hot in places, and cold in others. She was so sore, so tired, and couldn't get warm. Her back kept rubbing against prickles of metal, causing her to squirm and kick at the walls.

Her eyes throbbed behind her eyelids, her head felt like it was going to explode, and her insides churned with an aching fire. She reached for the ladder in the hold, only to discover her fingers were missing. A soundless scream erupted from her throat and her finger less hands clawed at the metal until they looked like a bloody mess of bones. Jyn panicked, drawing in air that was now so hot she felt it baked her lungs from the inside out. She coughed from the burning sensation, and retched, bringing up nothing but more horrible dry heaves. Her ears rang with a constant buzz, broken only by a low rumble of music or words, she couldn't tell which. Was that the whir of a ship's repulsorlifts?

"No!" she tried to yell but her voice came out only as a whisper "No! Don't leave me!" Eight year old Jyn sobbed. "I'm still in here! I'm down here! Don't go!" she tried to bang on the metal of the hold, but her body was frozen into stone. The spaceship took off with her parents in it, the whine of its engines growing fainter until there was nothing but blackness. No, that wasn't supposed to happen! Saw Gerrera was supposed to come get her! Where was he?

Jyn awoke after a string of frightfully similar dreams, feeling clammy and woozy. Her body felt heavy, and did not want to respond to her idea of sitting up and scouting her surroundings. She talked herself into opening her eyes, even though they stung and insisted on closing again. But Jyn did not want to return to that place of mindless dark and twisted childhood dreams. She stared up at the roof of the medical hut. Night was upon Scarif. The prickles in her back were not from the metal of a rusted hold in the caves behind her family's old farm, but from the rough grass pallet she was lying on. Jyn turned her head slowly this way and that, testing it as the room spun and her stomach clenched.

She was still in the village, and now she was aware that she was strapped to the cot with strips of woven rope. Her hands were covered in thick gloves of cloth and sticky pulp, rendering her fingers immovable. Jyn whimpered and began to thrash against the ropes, instantly feeling trapped.

"Jyn?" It was Cassian's throaty voice in the dark, coming from behind her. "Jyn darling. Stop, it's fine. You're fine."

Jyn stopped thrashing and the room slowed its spinning. Her chest heaved with suppressed sobs.

"Where are you?" she whispered, the words an effort to force out of her sandpaper dry throat.

"I'm still in the same bed." She heard a soft rustle from him. "See? I can touch you." His fingertips brushed the top of her hair. She must be lying on the empty cot Mir had always wanted her to use before, and she and Cassian were positioned head toward head. The hut was cloaked in darkness since the one torch that was usually lit in the center of the room must have gone out. Jyn shivered and cried quietly, sniffling as she tried to force her fright down. Cassian's fingertips continued to stroke her hair gently.

"Still sleepy?" he asked after she stopped crying. His voice was amazingly syrupy, but there was definite strength there too. "You had a bad fever. So did I, I guess. You were in the midst of it when I finally beat mine. Mir fixed up your hands. I don't know what the hell you were doing, but your fingers were so bloody and infected they were swollen stiff. We had a long sandstorm too. Lasted three days. You slept through it all."

Jyn concentrated on breathing evenly.

"Why?" she whispered. "How many days, Cassian? I lost—"

"Doesn't matter, the days." He replied smoothly. "You needed to fight that fever. You were struggling pretty hard in your sleep, so Mir had to tie you down to the cot in case you threw yourself to the floor." A pause. "Jyn, are you alright?"

"I was calling myself Aya while we were here, in case we need to hide our identities. While you were sleeping." Jyn sighed. "Guess not anymore..." She closed her eyes, too tired to speculate if any of the other hospitalized creatures in the room had even heard Cassian use her real name. More rustling behind her. Then Cassian's fingers threaded through her hair again.

"Hey." He was whispering now too. "Don't think about it. About any of it yet. Don't worry. I won't leave you." She smiled in the darkness of the hut, comforted by Cassian's voice and his light touch.

"You talked quite a bit in your dreams. Said you were trapped. Alone. You screamed. I can't imagine what nightmare you went through…" Cassian exhaled huskily. "We've been through a lot now Jyn, and I just—I want you to know I won't leave you."

Jyn's lips trembled, a flood of emotions filling her chest at his beautiful words. "That's—" she couldn't continue as she fought not to let the tears spill out. She wouldn't _dare_ cry again! Cassian was being so sweet. He would think she was a total wimp. _What the hell, Jyn!_ Since her throat was completely seized up, she only nodded in the darkness, wondering if the awkward feeling in her chest would pass.

"What? What's wrong?" Cassian asked. She couldn't answer for a bit.

"Goodnight." She stammered. A pause, then his answered "Goodnight."

And Jyn closed her eyes again and fell into a peaceful sleep, and thankfully had no more nightmares.

One more sandstorm hit the village and tried its worst. It was difficult for the sick bay patients since the sand sifted freely through the slated roof on top of them. Mir covered them all with thin, foul smelling sheets, and though Jyn didn't like the sensation of having her face covered and staring at the off-white underbelly of a cloth, it did help cut down on the dust. She slept through most of the storm, and woke up once more in the dark.

The torch was lit again, and she was pleasantly surprised to see Cassian sitting up on his pallet, his legs hanging over the side. His head whipped around at her sharp intake of breath.

"Jyn." He whispered. He slid off of his pallet entirely, being careful not to put any weight on his right leg, and came to stand beside her.

"Hi." Jyn gawked up at him dumbly. "It's great to see you up and moving."

"Yes, it's good to me…too." Cassian shifted his frame, supporting himself against the edge of her pallet. Jyn wasn't sure if he was leaning in because he was having difficulty holding himself up, or if he was trying to get closer to her on purpose. Either way, he was definitely hovering over her bed now, his face a foot above hers.

"The storm's over." Jyn cursed herself for sounding so stupid. "The sand storm, I mean."

"Uh huh." Cassian stared at her intently, the torch light flickering and dancing off his scruffy face. "How do you feel?"

 _Like I'm flying._ Jyn wanted to say, relishing their close proximity even as her body tensed up. Was it possible Cassian was even closer? Or was her eyesight blurring? His dark bangs tickled her forehead.

"Um, I fine. Just fine." She hurried to say.

"Good." Cassian seemed to have lost the majority of his vocabulary too. He just gazed at her, as if mesmerized.

"Yes. Good." Jyn inhaled sharply. What was he going to do?

Just then Mir swept in and yelled in her language, shooing Cassian back into his bed.

 _This is a longer chapter and it was so much fun to write. I'm planning on introducing romantic scenes slowly. I wrote most of this fic back in February 2017, right after I had seen "Rogue One". I just keep editing and changing some things. So for example, Jyn cleaning scrap metal had nothing to do with copying Rey in TFA. I hope you are enjoying this read! Review and let me know your thoughts._


	9. Chapter 9

With her strength returning due to Mir's administering and the bowls of thick broth she consumed, Jyn was back on her feet the next day. Cassian spent much of his time sitting up now, or limping carefully about the small hut, favoring his injured right leg. He had a warm light back in his eyes and ate whatever Mir gave him too. He also demanded to shave his beard, and had a difficult time conveying to Mir exactly what he wanted. In the end, Mir insisted on shaving him, making it clear that she did not trust him with a blade. She worked on the smooth planes of his cheekbones and jaw but left his mustache and chin alone since he swatted her hand away.

Cassian and Jyn couldn't talk to each other much. During the day they had to be courteous of the other ill patients resting or sleeping in the hut, and the villagers continued to get Jyn outside to perform chores. After the fifteenth day (according to the calendar Jyn kept in her head, give or take a day or two when she had been out with that fever) since moving from the AT-AT camp, Cassian became mobile enough to sit outside the hut with Jyn and work with her. Maybe cleaning scrap metal was the tribe's idea of balancing the scales of hospitality, but the two Rogues were uneasy over the harsh glares the other village members, both men and women—threw their way.

Jyn and Cassian speculated over why they were being treated this way in hushed whispers. Jyn's theory was that they villagers thought that she and Cassian were military personnel and they were scared. After all, they _had_ confiscated her utility vest and belt and blaster holster when she had arrived, and Jyn hadn't gotten them back yet. They had taken Cassian's utility belt as well.

Jyn's hands were bandaged for about another week, limiting a lot of her options, but she worked as much as she could, sweeping dirt packed floors in the neighboring huts and dusting sand off of countless surfaces that it clung to every day. The planet seemed to be recovering slowly from the Death Star's attack as well. It began to rain and look less like a desert and more like mud. The villagers still regarded Jyn with hard expressions and murmured words she could not understand. Jyn yearned to leave the place.

She and Cassian received meager meals for their labor. Two a day, one with the rising and setting of the sun. They grew restless, especially when they found out quickly that they could not scout or move freely near the village's circumference without earning a hard jab with a spear and harsh words from the natives. When they could make excuses to do tasks near the village's outskirts and sneak a peek, all Cassian and Jyn could see were tall mangled trees and dirty rivers rising in the hills that surrounded the depression the village was built into. The sand was disappearing into wet earth again.

Every night, even after Jyn and Cassian were feeling close to normal strength, the healer Mir would herd them into the medical hut to sleep. If they lingered, she would quickly summon one of the burly men to persuade them along.

"This is beginning to feel like a prison camp." Jyn whispered to Cassian one night when the village was silent and they were lying on their cots. She had estimated that they had been in the village for well over 40 days now.

"Beginning to? It has for a while now." Cassian scoffed. "We need to leave. I just can't seem to get a good vantage of our position, to plan which way to go. From what you told me, Scarif is a wasteland."

"It is for miles." Jyn nodded, frowning in the damp and dark. "But it can't be that way all around. The Death Star only hit the Ciadel Tower. The planet has probably survived further out. We would need to ask people for supplies. And your leg is healing well, but you still limp. You're not quite ready to walk long distances yet." They were both silent, knowing that even borrowing food and water from this village was not an option. The villagers, especially the men, seemed to carry some deep resentment over harboring the two fair skinned humans for such a long time. And to such a scale that they felt Jyn and Cassian needed to repay them for their help and healing, making them do tasks about the village. But now it was all getting too ridiculous. Something had to give.

Cassian reached up and stroked Jyn's hair from his cot. She reached a hand up to clasp his and interlace their fingers. They had not talked about that night after her fever, about that special moment of such tenderness…when Jyn's heart swelled to bursting and Cassian told her he wouldn't leave her. These days they just stuck close to one another silently and concentrated on their labors, keeping their eyes open, and forever on the alert.

The tension between the two Rogues and the villagers felt a little different the next day. The mood in the atmosphere was so tight it crackled. Jyn and Cassian did chores as usual and watched for an opening. Just as the noonday sun was peaking, everything changed.

A caravan of non humans, Trandoshans, arrived in the village, leading strange looking pack animals. Instantly the village was abuzz as the bulky warriors and the new, lizard like strangers met and conversed in loud, guttural words. They gestured and swore and even brawled a little. The village men wanted a lot of the Trandoshan's goods, but didn't have a lot of credits or good to exchange for the stuff. Jyn and Cassian observed the transactions from the corners of their eyes. The village men looked around and rubbed their fingers together, as if looking for a quick solution. Then they pointed toward Jyn and Cassian, who were sitting in the scrap metal pile.

The two Rogues only had a second to glance at each other before the heavily armed Trandoshans were upon them, pulling them apart and clamping their hands behind their backs.

"No!" Even with the language barrier, Jyn did not need a translator to learn what was happening. The humanoid Trandoshans must have made some sort of filthy bargain with the villagers. This was unacceptable. She was NOT a prisoner and certainly not one to be negotiated for! The aliens held Cassian's arms behind him and began dragging him toward their caravan. Two village warriors held Jyn firmly, while a third pressed himself up against her backside, chuckling rudely and groping her. They were keeping her and selling Cassian as a slave! Some of the men were taking bundles from the caravan leaders, and nodding their approval as they appraised the goods.

"NO!" Jyn fought with all the strength she had in her. She thrashed her arms and kicked out furiously behind her with her legs, hitting the men where she could. But there were too many holding her and she only succeeding in them tightening their hold on her.

"Jyn!" Cassian knew what was going on too. He went berserk. There was no way in this hellhole he would let them separate him and Jyn! Cassian lashed out, finding a reserve of strength as he succeeded in freeing one arm and jamming his left elbow into the alien's face closest to him. While the creature cursed and stumbled, he used the distraction to stomp squarely on his other captor's foot and at them same time brought his good knee up in a bone cracking kick. The Trandoshans roared and closed in on him again, but Cassian spun and punched the nearest one in his toothy jaw. He spotted a blaster holstered in the creature's belt, and as the alien fell, Cassian grabbed the weapon, flipped the indicator off of stun. He shot a few bolts off at the angry traders nearest him. Then he took off at a clumsy run toward Jyn.

Three muscled villagers were pulling her towards one of the huts, but they were slowed down by Jyn as she wrestled like an irate cat, screaming the entire time. Cassian raised the blaster and took careful aim. He fired. The first stun bolt hit a warrior squarely in the chest. Two more shots hit Jyn's other captors below the belt, Cassian by no means missing his mark. Jyn tore away from the barbarians and ran towards Cassian. When she collided into the welcoming plane of his chest, he snatched up her hand and they took off together through the palm trees, racing like hell out of the village. A spear whistled through the air between them and imbedded itself into a tree trunk. Cassian threw some scattered blaster bolts over his shoulder and kept running. The Trandoshans returned fire.

Jyn and Cassian ducked, and ran holding their bodies in a crouch, up the depression and through the moist wasteland out towards the open, barren horizon.

Another projectile clipped Jyn's head and must have nicked her somewhere, because her hand flew up to the side of her face and came away with blood. Seeing Cassian pause to look, she pulled his hand to urge him to keep going.

By the time darkness descended on Scarif, Jyn and Cassian were miles away from that village. They had lost their pursuers after a deft hide and seek chase, involving cover inside the mangled remains of a TIE Fighter, and circles of footprints in the wet sand that would mislead the caravan of aliens who tracked them. An uproar from their captors could still be heard for several hours before silence and night fell.

Jyn and Cassian were completely spent. They could not have run another foot even if their lives depended on it now. They sat with their backs against a stand of mangled palm trees, heaving in breaths of the dampening, tropical air. They must be getting farther away from the devastation and dry, scarred surface the Death Star had targeted.

Cassian had his right leg stretched out and was digging his fingers into the muscle around the knee, his face creased in pain as he tried to work out some of the throbbing ache. Jyn scooted close to him and grabbed his tunic.

"We did it! We escaped." She let out a little shaky laugh. Her body was trembling all over.


	10. Chapter 10

Cassian smiled thinly and nodded, his eyebrows knitted. He was in too much pain to talk for a minute, having tasked his right leg so much, so fast. He concentrated on catching his breath.

"At least that broken bone healed enough over the past weeks not to have torn or damaged anything else during that run." Jyn said, running a light hand over his leg. He snatched her hand away and held it, staring intently into her eyes. He continued to hold it as his heart slowed to a normal rate. And then he suddenly pulled Jyn onto his lap.

"Well! You're bold!" she squeaked.

Cassian chuckled at her wide eyes. She sat still as a stone, sidesaddle on him while he brushed away the tangled strands of bloody hair from the right side of her face.

"Let me see you." He said, as if that statement alone excused his behavior, "Looks like you got nicked by something." His left hand cupped her face and his fingers slowly stroked her right earlobe. "It's just a scratch that bled a lot."

"What's so funny?" Jyn retorted. "You've had that _stupid_ grin on your face for the last half hour now." Cassian's laugh turned into a cough. His eyes were dancing.

"Come on, Jyn. It's good to be alive." The corners of his mouth twitched again. "In some ways I can't believe that we are alive, that's all."

Jyn blinked, feeling that such an action was absolutely necessary to break the spell she was trapped in. Cassian's eyes were so black and depthless—she felt like she was falling right into them the longer she stared.

"I'm glad too, I just—" she wrinkled her nose and tried to put on a confident air. "You ran really well, considering your wounds."

Cassian's eyes darted to where his hand was caressing her ear, and she winced when he ran a thumb over the injury.

"You're beautiful." He murmured softly.

She frowned, gently pushed his hand away and used her own fingers to touch her ear and discover that the cut had already scabbed over with a thick crust of blood and dirt.

"What? I'm not allowed to call you beautiful?" Cassian asked.

"No. I did not give you permission."

An even deeper twinkle flashed in Cassian's eyes. He captured her other hand then, and held both of them in his. He sat up straighter until their noses were close to touching.

"What _do_ I have permission to do?" he whispered slowly, the very sound of his voice and the warmth in his eyes making Jyn's heart pound a mile a minute. Without realizing it, she began to pant lightly, suddenly not getting enough of the damp Scarif air. She had never been kissed before, and now it seemed-

She slid off of Cassian and got to her feet. She had heard something. She stood on her tiptoes and strained to recapture the sound. One of Cassian's hands clasped her ankle to keep her from going too far, and he started to speak, but she shushed him.

"Quiet! I hear something." There it was again. A faint creak, like a metal door swinging, or it could even be the song of a water bird…she turned to Cassian, who was suddenly very interested in inspecting his wounds. "Do you hear that?"

"What?" Cassian held his breath and tried to listen. He heard the same soft sound. He slowly hauled himself to his feet. "We should check it out then."

He and Jyn crawled in the mud toward the sound. They crept this way for twenty meters before the landscape started sloping downward into a canyon, full of dark crevasses along its walls and a muddy river running along its floor.

"The noise came from here." Jyn whispered, grasping Cassian's wrist. They strained their eyes in the dark, trying to pinpoint the sound.

"There." Cassian pointed with a nod of his head toward the far right end of the canyon. "It's coming from there. But it's all shadows."

"Maybe there's someone down there. Let's go." Jyn didn't wait for him as she sat down on her rear end and started down the incline through a mixture of sliding and crawling. Once she reached the floor of the valley, it was even darker, and no wind blew in. She knelt down to dip her hands in the cool, muddy river.

"Jyn!" Cassian hissed, climbing down not more than a few feet behind her. "That's far enough, isn't it? And don't you dare drink that water! It's filthy."

"You 'fraid?" She whispered back, even as her pulse quickened. She threw a mischievous glance over her shoulder to convince him she was perfectly fine and continued forward, walking along a ledge as she headed toward the canyon's narrowest point. The rock walls came together at a V, the sides rising higher the closer she crept. Cassian muttered an appropriate curse, but followed her, inching his way without too much complaint.

They crossed the river at the point where it was just a trickle, and didn't even get their damaged boots wet as they scuffled alongside seams and fissures, tracing a path to that shadowy point where they had heard the creaking noise.

It turned out to be a boarded up tunnel entrance. Building materials were still scattered around the entrance. Clearly the workers had left in a hurry and hadn't come back for days.

Jyn waited patiently for the limping Cassian to catch up with her, and then slipped into the mine through an obvious crack in the boards, just wide enough to fit her body. The workers had done a sloppy job boarding up the entrance. Scarif's moon filtered scant shafts of light through the wood slats. She could barely see a thing.

Cassian was rummaging around outside.

"C'mon!" Jyn pulled on one of the boards and it came off, allowing more room for Cassian to follow her. See could vaguely see that there were metal tracks laid along the ground, that wound further into the tunnel. Although the place was musty smelling and parts of the braced roof were crumbling down in places, it had promise.

"This must lead somewhere, maybe back toward a city on Scarif." Jyn ventured. "But the further we walk, we'll lose the light. Do you have any ideas—"

She got no further as a soft pop sounded behind her and she turned to see Cassian standing with an orange glow rod.

"Is this what you were looking for?" he quipped, raising the rod to shine it on the low hanging ceiling and along the wet walls of the tunnel.

"That'll do." Jyn smiled.

Cassian stood by her left elbow. "I found this is some workmen's pack outside. Not much else to salvage, unfortunately. No water or food." He waited, holding the glow stick straight out before him, both of them wondering if the light and their voices would prompt some animal using the tunnel to make itself known. After a minute when nothing happened, Cassian took Jyn's right hand and started forward, walking admirable straight and tall as he headed deeper into the tunnel. Jyn followed him.

Cassian walked slowly, shining the glow rod up down on the walls, the ceiling, and the damp, dirt packed ground as they explored. He murmured his observations to Jyn when he felt there was something she should know about, such as "step over a board right here" or "watch this puddle, on your left".

Jyn didn't say a word, feeling tense and reverent as she picked her way along the tunnel. She was excited and still expected some creature to jump out at her, or for something to go wrong. Then Cassian stopped abruptly and she bumped into him.

"Why'd you stop?" she whispered.

"The tunnel is getting narrower. There's only room here for us to suck it in and squeeze through one at a time. Not sure if it will open up after this blockage." Cassian matched her whisper and waved the glow rod, showing her a thick wooden pillar in front of him, with about a foot and a half width of space between that and the tunnel, or mine wall.

"Ok." Jyn blew out her breath and slipped past him, stepping towards the pillar. "I'll go first and see what's on the other side."

Before she could start squeezing between the rock and the hard place, Cassian moved like a graceful cat and closed the gap between them, pushing her up against the tunnel wall.

"Sithspawn! Cassian!" she gasped, and was about to shove him away, but then she felt something cold and wet fall on her forehead and trickle into her eyes. She blinked, startled.

Cassian shushed her gently and brought up his hands, reaching over her head to cup and collect whatever liquid had fallen. He stepped back only slightly and sniffed the liquid, then tasted it with the tip of his tongue.

"Seems like water." He said in his normal voice, his words sounding suddenly loud and deep in the tunnel after all the whispering they had been doing. He slurped the rest of the water in his hand into his mouth and pointed with his chin at Jyn. "It's good. Lift your head and catch it."

Intrigued and also incredibly thirsty from traveling and running, Jyn leaned her head back further, angling it so that the water that was falling now dripped into her open lips. She sighed deeply as the refreshing liquid hit her tongue and stood still, taking as much water as she could. After bracing herself in that position for several minutes, drinking up the drips hungrily, she felt Cassian's warm body brush up against her front again.

"Nice, huh?" he murmured, his voice a low rumble. He held the glow stick high and peered above her, trying to see where the source of the water came from. Jyn shifted and stopped lapping like an insatiable dog. She found that their faces were only inches apart. Although her eyes couldn't quite focus on Cassian's face, this close in the soft orange light, she could tell he was watching her. His eyes sparkled in the near dark, and he smiled. Jyn's eyes dropped to the rough length of his neck, and followed the shiny drop of sweat that was trickling down it, tracing a path against that strong curve, so agonizingly slowly…

His shock of dark bangs tickled her face as he studied her, those depthless black eyes demanding her attention. She wasn't sure what he saw in her. Perhaps he saw pain, weakness, or comprehension in this moment of vulnerability, and part of her felt like shrinking away. She held her breath.

 _Ooooooo, fair warning, the next chapter is the steamiest one yet! You have been warned. Since I started this fan fic, I also discovered that Scarif actually had no moons, but since I wrote one in, it will have to stay. I hope you are enjoying this read. Please review!_


	11. Chapter 11

"Ahem. Maybe if I move—" Jyn pretended to cough, making as if to slide along the wall and free up room for him to take a drink. But Cassian's right hand, the one not holding the glow stick high above their heads, clamped on her waist and kept her in place.

He didn't say anything, just kept staring at her. Jyn inhaled out of necessity, the breath shaky.

"Don't you want to take a taste?" she mumbled quietly. He nodded, but something in his gaze told her he wasn't thinking about tasting the water. She suddenly felt very warm, like a fire had ignited in the middle of her chest. And the snarky bastard didn't make things any cooler as he leaned in.

Jyn could feel so many of their contours through their clothing. Cassian was only wearing combat trousers and his mutilated shirt. The right sleeve was missing, curtesy of Jyn, and the entire shirtfront was still split open from her slicing it to care for his wounds. Again, her handiwork. The villagers hadn't changed Cassian's clothing, but they had given her a long sleeved, knee length brown tunic and pants made out of light, gauzy material. Much like the other village women wore. The tunic was tattered all around the bottom and her sleeves were ripped to elbow length from working like a slave. Jyn suddenly felt vulnerable in her thin clothing, and aware that now Cassian's right leg was planted between both of hers and the weight of his pelvis was pressing against her lower abdomen. Not even in the midst of battle had all of her senses come to her in such sharp clarity. Her blood hammered in her ears.

Cassian propped his left elbow on the stone wall beside her head, and bent his head even closer his nose touched the right side of her face. His nose traced a slow path from the lobe of her injured ear to the tip of her chin, his touch feather light as he followed the curve of her jawline. His breath huffed against her collarbone.

Jyn trembled. She gulped and opened her mouth to say something, but then she felt the soft stubble of his beard against her lips and he planted a small kiss right under her right eye. He placed three more delicate, barely there kisses down her cheekbone, the last one landing at the very corner of her lips. He exhaled softly onto her lips and Jyn instinctively inhaled as his soft mustache tickled gently under her nose.

He hovered there a few seconds longer before his lips touched hers, full on the mouth.

It was such a tantalizing feeling and she could feel such warmth in his kiss, as if by that one act he had flooded her body with liquid heat. Of course most of it rose straight to her face. Cassian didn't even seem to care that her lips were cracked or that her face was dirty. He was being amazingly gentle. Jyn was floating, thrilled and frightened at the same time. Her first kiss! How did they get here? It didn't matter. Thoughts of her current location in the mine fled from her brain. Jyn's world was only her and Cassian, here, now, in this moment. She quivered as Cassian broke the kiss but he responded with a second one, making it last longer and deeper. She moved her lips and made the motion of kissing him back, copying him, experimenting, melding with him as her head reeled, the sensation reminding her of when she had drunk too much Corellian brandy once.

Cassian shifted, his whole body unyielding and solid as he crushed her even father against the earthen wall. Jyn didn't care, even if at this rate she was liable to become a permanent fossil embedded in the rock behind her. Her chest rose and fell quickly, despite how tightly she was pressed against his open shirtfront. She could feel her heart racing and his too, speeding up along with her.

Jyn trembled, and made a small noise in her throat as she realized that her face was still getting rained on. Cassian slipped his arms around her waist and slid her along the wall away from the water stream. Then he began to capture the drops of water on her lips with his, pulling gently on her bottom lip. He began to kiss her harder, hungrily, and when the tip of his tongue nudged her lips open she let him probe her mouth tentatively. Electric shivers jolted down her spine at this new move, and she abruptly jerked her head away, clumsily knocking Cassian's nose with her chin.

"Cassian!" she managed to squeak.

Instead of being perturbed about her ruining the moment, Cassian chuckled, his voice rumbling in the tunnel. He tilted his head and came back for more. His left hand traveled up to cradle the back of her neck and his right hand moved around to the small of her back, holding her flush to his warm body. Jyn enjoyed it all but she couldn't help squeaking again as she registered something hard digging into her lower abdomen. His tongue parted her lips again as he boldly explored her mouth, and although part of her felt that she should be disgusted by such an exchange of human fluids, she found she could quickly get used to this. His actions only stoked the raging fire inside of her and she was glad he was holding her up or she would have surely lost the ability to stand and dropped to the floor like a collapsing droid. He tasted nutty, vaguely like the dry protein rations they had last shared, and she enjoyed his taste as she tangled her tongue with his, feeling dizzy as his salty, very male scent filled her nose.

She didn't know how long they went at it. Only when she heard a small thump and she opened her eyes to find them in complete darkness did she tear her lips away from his. Their only source of light, the orange glow stick, neglected by Cassian in pursuit of…other devices had fallen to the tunnel floor and gone out.

"Stop." Jyn panted hard, and gripped Cassian's bony shoulders tightly. Cassian seemed not to register the word as he gently pulled her loose, mud caked hair to one side and began nuzzling her exposed neck. "I…I can't breath when you do that." She tried again.

"Neither can I." Cassian murmured between hot kisses. His lips moved down to her shoulder. His teeth teased the cloth aside so he could get at her bare skin. His hands roamed upward, sliding along her ribcage higher and higher, his thumbs brushing the sides.

Jyn jumped sky high. (Or as high as she could if there were not a tunnel ceiling above her)

"We should get moving." She said quickly, smiling in the dark and reaching up to find his face and cup it in her hands. "Cassian, the light has gone out."

"I beg to differ." The comedian answered, "I think the light has just flamed to life between us. And it's about damn time."

"Oh stop it. We'll never get out of here." Jyn laughed giddily.

"Is that such a bad thing?" Cassian sighed but he stepped back, both of them feeling instantly sorry to lose the close quartered warmth.


	12. Chapter 12

The two Rogues dropped to their hands and knees and felt around in the dark for the glow rod. Jyn found it first and shook it back to life.

"I'll lead now." She grinned at Cassian and shimmied through the narrow opening between the tunnel wall and the post of thick wood, and waited for him to follow her.

Cassian grunted and knocked his forehead on the post as he twisted his body through. "Good thing we were nearly starved in that village or I probably would have never made it through there." He said, patting his stomach for emphasis. His eyes were serious again as he looked around at this side of the post.

"Wow." They both said softly. Jyn held the glow rod high, and in its soft light, they could see that the shaft they had been following now branched off into five other tunnels.

"Which one should we pick?" Jyn ventured. Cassian held out his hand.

"May I have the light? I want to see if there is any writing around any of these openings."

Jyn nodded and gave up the glow rod. She stood still in the shadows while Cassian walked carefully forward and held the rod up high—higher than she could have reached—shining the light on the walls and crude wood frames of each tunnel opening. She smiled as she watched him sniff and scope around like a hunter. He walked a short distance in and out of each tunnel, but not far enough away that she would be left in complete darkness.

"See anything you like?" she called, her voice echoing.

"Nothing as good looking as you." Cassian came back to her and handed her the glow stick, folding her fingers over it. "Nothing as alive as you or I either." He began to motion toward each tunnel with his hand as he talked about them in turn. "I can't find any markings to give us a clue as to what is in each tunnel. I do know the one on the far left is a dump site of sorts. It's full of debris and materials. Has a powerful smell too. I don't recommend checking it out. The one beside the dump has cold air gusting down it toward us. It's long. I can't tell where it goes. The middle one also had cold air and I can't tell where it goes—"

"Wait a second." Jyn stopped him in the middle of his oration to lick her thumb and draw it along his forehead, above his right eyebrow. "You got a little too friendly with that wooden post, hum?"

"Oh save it." But Cassian smiled thinly as he let her fuss over him and wipe the thin line of blood and dirt away. "Anyways, the tunnel second to our right over there," he gestured again with his hand "has hot, dusty air coming out of it. Too long to know where it goes. The last one is the only one that these metal tracks on the ground follow."

Jyn aimed the light down to confirm that there was still a barely visible pair of metal tracks under her feet, half covered with sand. She had forgotten they existed, since she couldn't feel them through her boots most of the time her and Cassian had been walking in here. She wondered how far under Scarif's surface they were.

"So this is a construction site." She sighed, musing out loud, "Someone is probably working on the train system. Why don't we follow the tracks?"

Cassian agreed. "May I hold your hand?"

"Of course." Jyn grinned shyly as she laced her fingers with his, feeling a bubble of excitement at his touch. "You can have the light again too. You're taller."

"I figured it was giving you a sense of power." He teased.

They walked forward together into the far right side tunnel. Jyn wished that the air in here could have consisted of some of those cool gusts Cassian had mentioned two of the other tunnels had. It was wishful thinking, but the air in this tunnel was hot, moist, and smelly. It was like walking through a tangy, fishy scented sauna.

"Let's try to count to see how much time we spend in here." She suggested. Cassian didn't answer. He was shining the light down at their feet so that they wouldn't trip over the metal tracks. Jyn had barely started counting when he stopped.

"What is it?" she peeked around his shoulder.

"The tunnel ends. The ceiling slopes downward from here. I don't think we can keep going." Cassian replied.

"But the tracks are laid! Why end them here?" Jyn whined, feeling a rush of irritation and frustration. Maybe it was the sticky, foul smelling air putting her in such a bad mood.

"I know. It's a shame. We just have to go back and choose one of the other tunnels." Cassian gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Jyn nodded and they made their way backwards until they came back to the fork of five tunnels.

"Let's just eliminate them all until we get out of here." Cassian suggested in a low tone. He started down the next one, the other hot air tunnel right next to the one they had just emerged from. Jyn distracted herself by counting. She had estimated that from the slow pace they were walking and the time that had past they had gone down at least 4000 meters in this hot, dark tunnel and it had been an hour of standard time.

Cassian stopped again. He was remarkable quiet and levelheaded compared to Jyn's heavy breathing and scuffling. She didn't ask him why he had stopped this time, just waited as he took a quick look. Then he pulled her forward and handed her the glow rod. They were standing on the edge of a steep drop off. Cassian held her around the waist so she wouldn't fall as she peered over the edge.

"Damn." Jyn sighed. "Another dead end." More hot wind brushed her face as she leaned over into the cloying blackness. "I can hear water down there. Maybe it's an underground reservoir." She announced.

"Great. It can stay down there." Cassian chuckled lightly as he pulled her back. "You stay up here."

"I don't see how you can be having any fun in this heat." Jyn pouted, twisting her dirty hair back and holding it up off of her sweaty neck.

"What else can I do?" Cassian shrugged. "We're stuck in here until we figure another way out or else exit back into the canyon where we started." Jyn was reminded why he had made such a good Captain. He wasn't letting himself get all worked up like she was. She blew out her breath heavily and started following him back to the tunnel forks. Again.

She wiped a trail of sweat off of her cheek and scratched her neck, continuing to hold her hair up for a small bit of relief. "I'm so hot I could take my clothes off."

Cassian nearly tripped and fell on his face at that surprising revelation. Jyn put her free hand on his back and pushed him forward, urging him to keep walking and not get too excited. She stifled a rising laugh. Oops. Maybe she shouldn't have let that last thought come out.

Once they had plodded back out to the welcoming, cooler air of the tunnel junctions again, Cassian immediately took her hand and turned toward the middle tunnel, but Jyn pulled against him.

"Can't we slip back past that wooden post first and get a drink of water?" she begged, letting her aching legs give out and sitting with a plunk on the ground to emphasis how tired she was.

"I don't want to squeeze through again, but you go for it." Cassian patiently helped her back to her feet and followed her, trying not to smile at how cranky she was. It would only make things worse.

Jyn's lithe frame easily slipped past the wooden post again and she returned to the place where she and Cassian had kissed. The water and those sweet memories made her feel worlds better as she cupped her hands and drank from the seam in the tunnel wall. She wished she could bring some water back to Cassian.

"You sure you don't want to squeeze back through?" she called. "You must be thirsty!" Cassian had given her the precious glow stick again so she could see her way to the water. He was waiting in utter darkness.

"I'm sure." His muffled voice replied. "I just want to get going."

Jyn patted her gauzy brown clothing. Kriff. She had nothing to carry water in on her. She had only what she was wearing. Cassian. Why wouldn't he just come back through? The stubborn captain. Jyn made a decision and abruptly peeled her itchy tunic off, enjoying the cool air on her bare skin for a moment. Then she began ripping a long strip off of the bottom of the silly cloth. What was it made out of, fishing net? Thankfully it was destructible, yielding to her fingers.

"What in the blazes are you doing now, Jyn?" Cassian called, obviously hearing all the ripping noises.

"Don't you dare come through here!" she shot back, a hand flying instinctively to her chest.

"Why? First you want me to come back through that opening, and now you change your mind?"

"Yep!" Jyn giggled under her breath. She worked quickly, holding the glow stick between her teeth. She tied the wide strip of gauzy cloth around her chest and secured it firmly with several knots. She tied her hair up on the top of her head with another strip of cloth. Then she held up the rest of her destroyed tunic to the water seam and let it get good and saturated.

"I'm coming back." She warned Cassian, slipping past the wooden post again. She held up the light on him, smiling into his dark eyes. "Miss me?"

"Terribly." He smiled, rubbing his mustache. "What's this?" Jyn plopped the wet ball of cloth in his hands.

"The best I could do for you. Wipe your face with it or something. It might be refreshing." Cassian did so and let out a sigh of appreciation as the cool water hit his face. Then he noticed her new outfit and his dark eyebrows flew up.

"Don't speak." Jyn made a beeline for the middle tunnel and walked in with renewed energy. Cassian followed her this time since she had the glow stick and a head start.

This tunnel was the longest one yet, over 5000 meters. But the air was cooler and Jyn became excited as she caught a glimpse of a flashing blue light.

"Cassian!" she stopped and pointed it out ahead.

"Let me go first." He said protectively. He usurped the glow stick and they continued on, emerging onto a metal ledge that opened right beside to a fully functioning train track. Power cables, small blue lights, and metal girders hovered over their heads. Jyn squealed in delight.

She and Cassian were about to step onto the track and follow it when the tunnel started vibrating and a low, throaty growl sounded to their left.

"A train is coming!" Cassian said.

 _I didn't mean for Jyn and Cassian to be stuck so long in the tunnels, but the characters kind of ran away on me! I hope you still enjoy this chapter. Please review._


	13. Chapter 13

Jyn bounced on her toes in excitement. At last! Civilization. She craned her neck to peer further down the track. Cassian yanked her back against him.

"Do you think it could be Imperials?" Jyn sighed as rational thoughts crept back into her mind.

"I don't care at this point." Cassian flashed her a small smile. "Want to catch a train Jyn?" his accented voice was syrupy, cajoling.

"You don't have to wheedle me into it." Jyn shook her head and mirrored his smile. "I've already made up my mind to catch it." She glanced around. "But how?"

"Like this." Cassian was already pounding up a small, narrow ladder bolted to the metal tube wall. A blue-white light glared and Jyn winced as it stabbed her eyes and made her lose sight of the captain. The train had rounded the far curve and was hurtling toward her.

"Cassian!" Jyn shaded her eyes and felt for the ladder, trying to scramble up it as quickly as she could. _Focus, Jyn, you've only got one shot at this!_ She coached herself, even as her body panicked and her fingers slipped in her haste to climb. She could barely see a thing, blinded by the train's headlamp.

"I've got you Jyn." A slim arm wrapped around her, supporting her under her armpits and a boot nudged her knee. "I'm still standing on the ladder too. Don't climb any further. We'll jump together.

"This is crazy!" Jyn shot back. "Why can't we stand near the edge of the track and just snag a handhold as the train passes?"

"You want to keep two arms, yes?" Cassian sounded distracted. "Listen Jyn, you've got to trust me. We're going to catch that caboose. It has a sloping roof with a metal air duct on top. We can grab hold of that—"

"How the hell can you even see—"

"Maybe I've caught trains before, ok?" Cassian's arm tightened around her like a poised snake. "Ready? On three. ON three, not before, not after."

"Ok, ok…" Jyn held onto the ladder run with her left hand and faced the train track, her body flush against Cassian's. She reached out with her right hand into the empty air she was about to jump into like an idiot.

"One, two, THREE!" Cassian leapt, pulling Jyn with him. She made her legs obey and pushed off of the ladder at the same time he did. They sprung and Jyn didn't even register any of that scary, empty air as in the next second she was smashed face down on a hard metal surface. She gasped and instantly saw stars.

Cassian's voice registered dimly in her ears.

"Jyn! Hold on!" But her body was sliding down the smooth gray metal. Cassian's fingers brushed her left hand but didn't get a hold. "JYN!" he barked.

Jyn found a foothold that was the rounded bumper of the last train car. She froze and looked around, blinking against the fuzzy lights fading behind her eyes. At least she had stopped falling. Air rushed past her as the train hurtled onward, further helping to clear her head. Jyn looked up but couldn't discover a handhold. There was no back windowsill, or anything to grab purchase for in the sleek metal. She planted her hands firmly against the metal as if she could will herself to grow webbed, sticky fingers, and concentrated on maintaining her balance on the vibrating train, feeling horrified that she was only standing on the bumper and one false move or hard jolt could tip her backward onto the tracks and away from Cassian.

Cassian's dark haired head peered over the edge at her. He was on the train car's roof. Relief filled his face and he extended a hand toward her. It came nowhere near Jyn.

"Jyn!" Her name on his lips sounded faint as the sound was carried away through the tunnel.

"I hit my head pretty hard." Jyn replied, licking her lips and grimacing as she tasted wet, coppery blood. "And I can't climb up."

"Give me your new tailored shirt." Cassian called down. Jyn grimaced again. Of all the— "Now!" Cassian urged, "Before you fall off!"

Jyn kept her body carefully rigid, her ankles and knees locked as she balanced precariously on the train's bumper. She slowly reached one hand between her chest and the cold metal train and untied the strip of brown tunic that she had fashioned and stretched across her breasts not too long ago. Well, she wouldn't die of embarrassment…but she wished there was another way…she wasn't quite ready for Cassian to see her like this. Yet.

"Hurry." Cassian was impatient. He was still reaching down toward her and holding on to something else out of Jyn's view on top of the roof.

"Don't break yourself in half." She admonished him, trying to make light of the situation even as her voice trembled. _Damn it Jyn, you're a Rogue, by the Force. The Force…_ Jyn touched the kyber crystal that was still strung around her neck. Just brushing her fingers against that gift from her mother gave her a reassuring sense of peace. She looked up again, staring into Cassian's worried big brown eyes and tossed up an end of the gauzy brown cloth.

He caught it on the second try. He grabbed hold of his end with an iron grip and twisted his wrist to wrap some of the cloth around that too. Jyn held her end and mimicked his idea, wrapping the brown strip thrice around her wrist too and clenching her own hand into a fist.

"Come on." Cassian pulled. Jyn trusted him, but she still held her breath as her boots left the solid train bumper. Cassian's face contorted with concentration and pain as he strained to pull her body weight with one arm. His right arm, Jyn noted with a shiver. He had just healed from a blaster wound in that arm. _Stupid man._ She thought fondly. Why would he risk injuring it again? That's right. His good arm was probably holding on up top for leverage—

She almost forgot her own discomfort, and the fact that she was bare chested as she listened to Cassian cry out in agony. Slowly he dragged her up the slippery metal and finally onto the edge of the roof. Jyn immediately wrapped her fingers around an antenna she spotted there and levered her lower half fully onto the top of the train car. Cassian scooted back to make room for her and sat cross legged, breathing hard and staring down at his lap. Jyn crawled on her hands and knees over to him. The tunnel roof was low, and strung with cables so it wasn't safe to stand up. She wouldn't have wanted to anyways; she would probably lose her balance.

"Cassian…" she breathed. He was clutching his shoulder with his free hand. His face was flushed and dripping with perspiration. "You—you're amazing." She managed to say, feeling overwhelmed with a sudden rush of love for him. He had not let her fall, no matter how much pain it had caused him. She cupped his face with her hand and then realized she was smearing her own blood on him. Cassian averted his eyes gallantly away from her chest. He did gaze back into her eyes though as she gently planted a kiss on his lips.

"I lost the brown cloth." He confessed, nodding toward the receding train tracks. "Help me out of this." He struggled out of his shirt, wincing as Jyn helped him slip his right arm through. The shoulder looked bruised and wrong. Dislocated, most likely.

Jyn quickly put Cassian's torn shirt on backwards, so the ripped shirtfront exposed her spine. At least they could look at each other normally now.

"How can I help?" she asked him, motioning to his shoulder. He was still in intense pain, but managed a lopsided grin.

"Don't think about that. Get this vent off and we'll see if we can slip inside this train." He was all business. Cassian tapped a bulky metal square perched behind him on the roof. Jyn quickly sized it up with a glance.

The aerodynamic train roof was a little more than half a meter wide at its flattest part, which Jyn and Cassian were sitting on. There was no way she could sneak past him without sliding down the slippery metal again. Naturally the two Rogues improvised. Jyn sat in Cassian's lap and he awkwardly swiveled his body around 360˚ until she was now facing the vent. She went to work on it, boldly reefing on the metal and loosing restraints until she had the thing off. She let the square vent cover go and it bounded behind on the train tracks.

Jyn stuck her head through the opening and peered into the train car. It was empty except for a low white bench built against the inside wall and a viewing window on each side. A passenger could sit and enjoy the view as it rushed by backwards.

"Looks clear." Jyn slinked the rest of her body through the opening, emerging head first into the little room and fell only a short way to the floor. She rolled into a somersault and got to her feet, sniffing up a tangy clot of blood through her nose and coughing on it.

"As enjoyable as that looked," Cassian said dryly, sticking his own head down through the roof opening "I won't go that route." His head disappeared only to be replaced by his booted feet. Jyn helped support some of his weight by wrapping her arms around his legs as he lowered himself into the train car. Then she insisted he take a seat on the bench.

 _Sorry I haven't written in awhile! But I hope you like this chapter. Let me know what you want more of._


	14. Chapter 14

Cassian talked her through the procedure of slamming his shoulder back into its socket. He was trying to be tough, but he gnawed his lips and growled from the pain after she had done it.

"How's your nose?" he immediately turned his attention to her, reaching for her face. Jyn stepped forward into the space between his spread legs and stood patiently while he gently examined her bleeding nose. It was her turn to wince.

"Well?" she asked quietly, "What's your verdict, doctor?"

"I'm afraid it's broken, love."

"Love?" Jyn's eyebrows flew up. "Is that my name now?" she smiled playfully.

"I could call you something else if you don't like it." Cassian was doing such a good job distracting her that Jyn was hardly prepared when his strong fingers snapped something in her nose with a loud pop. She yelped in protest and smacked him across the face. Cassian laughed lightly.

"That HURT!" Jyn grabbed the lower hem of his backwards shirt and held it to her nose, catching the flow of blood. Tears streamed down her eyes despite her effort to fight them back.

"Come here." Cassian drew her closer toward him, "I am sorry. It had to be set though." He crooned, helping her hold the shirt and lightly pinching the bridge of her nose to check on the job he did. Jyn tried to tilt her head back. "No, you'll just swallow more blood and want to vomit." The doctor was certainly in the house, and in full character. Cassian slipped a hand behind Jyn's neck and slowly coaxed her to lean forward instead. "Pinch your nostrils together with the shirt instead. Like this. There you go." His voice was calming.

"Don't coddle me." Jyn frowned, her voice sounding hollow with her nose pinched shut. Cassian's lips curved into a ghost of a smile. He placed his hands on her waist, partly for his own enjoyment, partly to hold her steady until her nose stopped bleeding. When she lowered the bloody shirtfront and lifted her face for him to inspect again, he shook his head slightly.

"I won't touch your nose again, love. Just let it be for a bit."

Jyn's pearly eyes darted away from his gaze. Her face lit up. "A refresher! I call dibs!" she slipped out of his hold and rushed through a narrow doorway built off to Cassian's left in the train car. Cassian waited for her to return and must have dozed off, because the next thing he knew she was standing in front of him again stroking his beard. He opened his eyes. Jyn's hair was hanging loose and damp and she was still in the same decrepit clothing, but her face was clean and rosy, free of dirt and blood. She glowed with luminous happiness…but maybe that was all Cassian's imagination. Either way, she was gorgeous.

"Cassian, do you want to go in now?" she was saying. He nodded, not at all as excited about the proximity of a refresher as she had been. He was more interested in the proximity of the woman in front of him. "Come on." Jyn pulled him to a standing position by his good arm. "You're filthy."

Well. Never mind then. If she was going to be like that…Cassian obligingly headed into the tiny refresher.

Jyn sat down on the bench the captain had just vacated and sighed, relaxing so completely her body felt heavy. The tunnel walls whizzed by outside the windows, broken only by dots of blue lights. Jyn watched for a while and then the train was out of the tunnel. She could see the landscape of Scarif again, permeated by buildings and trees. Good. They weren't underground anymore. She had enough of that for a while.

Cassian emerged from the refresher looking much more awake. Jyn blushed at his bare chest and flexing muscles as he briskly rubbed a towel over his hair. He must have known she was looking, because although his head was angled down his dark eyes flicked up to twinkle at her.

Jyn tucked her arms over the absurd backwards shirt, and quickly smiled at the window. "We're coming into a base. Or a settlement." She dictated the obvious. "Doesn't look Imperial though. I would have seen their red flags by now or something."

"Or something. Hmmm." Cassian vocalized, stepping up to the window to take in the view also. His face looked sharp and serious again. "Ready to go?"

"I don't see why we should stay on this train. Especially if we don't know where it's going." Jyn shrugged, sliding off the bench to come stand beside him. She looked down and deliberately brushed his hand with her fingers. If they were going to leap into the next unknown leg of their adventure, she was glad they were still together. Cassian must have been feeling the same because he turned and wrapped his arms around her. They came together in a long, sweet kiss, being careful not to hit Jyn's sore nose. Jyn reached up and threaded her fingers through Cassian's clean hair, pulling him down toward her. She needed more of him.

But the train had a cruel sense of humor as it ground to a stop. Jyn's heart beat fast as they broke apart and found the egress, leading into a narrow hallway on the opposite side of the refresher. A handful of people and nonhumans were filing out from other parts of the train toward their car, exiting without giving the two Rogues a second glance. Jyn was glad of that as she and Cassian joined the flow of traffic.

Once out of the train they followed the pedestrians towards a checkpoint. Workers held up ID cards and placed their belongings for inspection on a narrow conveyor belt before passing through into the settlement proper.

Cassian glanced at Jyn, neither of them talking but both thinking that things might get pretty interesting without ID cards. In the course of their silent conversation of intense looks and eyebrows, Cassian decided to have a go at bluffing.

"Greetings." A severe looking woman with a pointed chin and an even pointier nose regarded the two Rogues with a sneer as they approached the checkpoint. "You don't look like workers. Especially out of dress code…" she sniffed at Cassian's lack of shirt and Jyn's strange getup.

"Yeah, we ran into some trouble in the wilderness." Cassian motioned in a noncommittal, general direction behind him with a casual sweep of his hand.

"I'll say!" the woman looked extremely put out. "I'd flag you both and call my superior but it's the end of my shift. Make it quick. Are you militia?"

"No."

"Service men?"

"No."

"Are you refugees?"

"Yes!" Jyn answered quickly, a little too eagerly. "We are. We don't want to inconvenience you any more than is necessary, so could you just point us in the direction—"

"More refugees…of course. Will I ever see the end of you lot? The refugee camp is that way. Set up on landing pad 623." The woman looked like she was trying the patience of a saint. "You can tell your stories there but there will be NO begging allowed on company grounds. Unless you'd rather sign up for a job now?" She was very eager to get rid of them.

"No thanks, we'll head to the camp." Cassian put a hand on the small of Jyn's back to guide her forward and they both flinched in surprise as his hand touched her bare skin. Fortunately the other woman didn't notice. Her attention was already on the next person in line. The two Rogues walked quickly away, reading signs for landing pad 623.

"Looked like a private contractor back there." Cassian murmured to Jyn in an aside. His eyes darted around, missing nothing. Jyn was scouting as well. "This settlement seems to be part of a big construction conglomerate. Never heard of a lot of these names." He was glancing at posters and reading signs.

"Sloppy management." Jyn grinned. "Lucky for us that she wasn't in the mood to call her superiors."

"But does it mean we can find a reliable contact to get us off world?" Cassian grabbed Jyn's hand and jerked her backward as a huge speeder hauling a trailer and trolley crossed directly in front of their path. It careened away with a screech on less than adequate repulsorlifts.

"I can't wait to get off Scarif." Jyn agreed, pressing Cassian's hand tighter in hers. "It would be great to have proper gear and a good blaster again. The Rebellion probably doesn't know we are even alive."

"We've been here what. A month? Yes?" Cassian steered them down an alley and through, emerging into a crude, open market. "If the Rebels thought we were still alive they would have sent a message after us. I'll see if I can find a dataport that's halfway decent around here and also withdraw some credits."

"I don't think credits will be of much use here…" Jyn elbowed him gently and pointed with her chin toward a line of shabby tents where merchants hawked their wares. Up and down the line buyers were trading great crates of fish in exchange for items. "Where are we going to get that much fish?"


	15. Chapter 15

"Don't be silly. Credits are good anywhere." Cassian smiled down at Jyn. But his dark eyes were full of questions. Jyn pulled on his hand, spotting a rusted terminal and making a beeline for it. She started stabbing buttons in the hopes of checking messages or extracting some credits from the systems. But the machine didn't respond.

"Out of order?" Cassian's back was to her and he scanned the busy crowd, keeping watch around them.

"Stupid hunk of metal!" Jyn kicked the terminal soundly.

"I take that as a yes…" Cassian slid his good arm around Jyn's waist, his body going rigid. A humanoid in a long black trench coat was stalking directly toward them. Jyn was just about to break left and run when the creature began to bow and make the human equivalent of a laugh.

"Citizens! Here, here. Darog's got what you want. Come! You want!" He nodded his head vigorously, several tubes connected to a breathing apparatus flapping under his chin with the movement. He opened one side of his greatcoat with a three-fingered flourish. He was a silver eyed Gand, and he was determined to sell them something.

Cassian relaxed only slightly but Jyn rocked on the balls of her feet impatiently.

The Gand was incredibly polite, speaking modulated Basic and referring to himself in the third person as he showed off the trinkets hanging in his coat. "Would the lady like to go first? Darog knows what she wants. A lovely dagger? A vanity set? Your hair is like spun—"

"No thank you." Jyn hurried to say. "We must be going."

"Darog, do you know where I could find a working datapad or interface around here?" Cassian asked.

The Gand swiftly opened up the other side of his coat as if he hadn't heard them. "For you sir, Darog has what you want! A new tunic? You look like you could use one. Scarif is a warm place, you know, and your human skin won't stay that brown forever. Darog knows."

Jyn brushed the back of her hand over her lips to hide her smile at that last remark, and glanced over at Cassian's bare chest.

"I don't have any credits." Cassian explained, patiently nodding as Darog revealed more and more hidden coat compartments. "Look. Your things are lovely, but I'm not purchasing."

"You can trade!" the Gand's head worked up and down like a mining rig. "Darog makes good deals. No credits you say?" He closed his coat suddenly. "What can you trade?"

"No thanks." Cassian helped Jyn slip between Darog and a tent stake and hurried deeper into the market.

"That was fun." Jyn grinned. Cassian's dark eyes darted to hers and he definitely did not look nearly as mirthful as she was feeling. Jyn stifled her giggle. "What?"

"This crowd is rough." Cassian said in a low tone.

"I've seen worse." Jyn shrugged, remember her time spent with Saw Gerrera's bunch and how she got into trouble with the Imperials and local scum on her own after that. She felt more confident just thinking about that. Yes. Time to take charge of her destiny and get off of this planet—

Cassian took a sharp right and yanked her with him. This alley was thick with loitering bodies. Jyn and Cassian had to squeeze their way past soft flesh and foul smelling tunics. Jyn felt a spiny hand grab her posterior and she whirled to clock the perp in the jaw. The heavily garbed man or non-human fell backward with a moan of surprise and the alley buzzed. Before the fuss could escalate into a full-fledged brawl, Cassian pulled her out of the alley.

"Hey! I was about to finish that." Jyn glowered. Cassian shook his head slightly.

"Come on, we have better things to do. There's landing pad 623."

The pad hosted a sprawling refugee camp that spread outward for several kilometers. Tents and makeshift dwelling squatted in the dusk like lumps of coal. There were few small fires and lights and people moved around them like slinking shadows.

All of this didn't deter the captain. He marched right into the center of the camp like he owned the place. Jyn followed close on his heels.

"Well hullo," a wiry human woman with blond hair wound in tight braids around her scalp strode up to meet them, smiling. "What brings you two here?"

"We're looking for a data terminal and a ride off of the planet, mainly." Cassian stated.

"Well those are both hard to come by." The girl shrugged. "Who might you be?"

"We're refugees." Jyn pipped in. "From the Citadel area."

"Serious?" the girl blinking in genuine surprise. "We haven't seen anyone come through from there in over two weeks. And those that did were in a bad state. Not many survivors. How did you—"

"Where are the survivors?" Cassian cut in quickly. He was hoping some of their Rogue One crew might be among them. Or at least someone that might know something.

"There's only one or two left in camp." The girl bit her lip. "The rest didn't make it or trickled away to other parts of the planet, or found a transport. Friends of yours?" she didn't seem to notice Cassian as much as Jyn.

"Maybe." Cassian answered carefully, stroking his mustache with a frown as he observed the girl raking Jyn up and down with her gaze, a sparkle in her eyes. Did she find Jyn's gauzy pants, backwards shirt, and messy off the neck hairdo as attractive as he did? "Do you get many…humans through here?"

"Oh no. Some of this camp has been here for years, some are new from all that explosion mess. Not many humans. Or women."

"Well we might as well stay the night and ask around." Jyn nodded, settling the matter. The woman stepped up closer to her.

"It's been awhile since I talked to a female around my age. We don't have a sanisteam or anything fancy set up here, but we have a bathing section. Shall I show you?"

"Oh yes!" Jyn's own eyes lit up. She spun on her toe to face Cassian. "I won't be long."

"Of course not…" Cassian still had a puzzled look on his face. He knew that Jyn would naturally be excited about a full bath, since that little refresher in the train car only allowed for hand and face washing, but there was something about the little blond woman, and how eagerly she was pulling Jyn by the hand away from him.

Cassian followed at a distance only to note the section in the sulking maze of tents that Jyn and the woman headed into. His breath caught in his throat. Would he lose her? No. He was being absurd…right?

 _More adventure. Please leave a review! Tell me what you like, what you'd want more of. I don't mind positive or negative reviews, either way._


	16. Chapter 16

Jyn let the shorter, petite woman lead her behind a thick tarpaulin. She got a hasty tour and lecture of the camp along the way from the woman, who said her name was Rory.

"Jyn." Jyn said by way of introducing herself, and then immediately thought that she should have used one of her made up name like Aya or even Liana Hallik. Too late for that now. She was delighted to see the bath was a deep metal basin full of sharp, acidic scented water. The water was cleaner than anything she had seen on the planet since the Death Star's visit yet. "Thank you!" she smiled at Rory. "Do I uh, owe you anything to use this?"

"Oh no." Rory blushed and looked at her sideways. "Not unless—I mean, just use it. I'll stand guard. Like I said, there aren't very many women here."

Jyn nodded and let down her hair from the ribbon of gauzy cloth she had it tied up in. As she began to slip out of Cassian's backwards shirt and her ridiculous trousers, she was a little surprised to note that Rory wasn't turning politely away. She was watching brazenly.

Jyn slipped into the bath and sighed. The water was cool, but it felt amazing on her sore muscles and sun chaffed skin. She began to rub her hands over her dirt caked arms and chest. "Anyone coming?" she asked Rory.

"No." Rory poked her head through a slit in the tarpaulin and looked. "Coast is clear. No one is any the wiser that we're back here." She smiled and sat on the edge of the tub. "You're very pretty."

"Thank you." Jyn shrugged, concentrating on scrubbing her skin. Rory reached off to the side and picked up Jyn's discarded hair ribbon.

"This might help." She handed it over.

"Yes." Jyn agreed, "What's your story, Rory?"

"Me? Oh, I was an Imperial coms router—" Jyn froze in the middle of washing her raised leg. "Don't worry, miss. I'm not anymore. We're all equals around here." Rory laughed lightly, a silvery little sound. She rocked on the edge of the tub and tucked an invisible strand of hair behind her ear. "The Imperials all pulled out of Scarif weeks ago, you see. Abandoned this base like it was an overheated reactor, and took the economy with them. The locals mainly fish, you know, and now their biggest customer is gone. I missed my shift that day and the transport. So I'm stuck here planet side."

"Where did they go?" Jyn asked, scrubbing the bottoms of her feet and thinking it was a great idea to keep Rory talking.

"Oh, who knows. Those Imperials are rich as Hutts. They can go anywhere. Why do you care? Did you miss your transport too?"

"Uh, no." Jyn took a deep breath and dunked her head underwater. She finger combed her hair and came back up. Rory was leaning over the tub, still smiling.

"Do you think I'm pretty, Jyn?" she asked breathlessly.

Jyn blinked the water from her eyes and quickly squeezed moisture out of her dark hair. "Sure." She offered, nonchalantly. "So the Imperials abandoned their base. Did anything—"

"Let's not talk about the Imperials." Rory sighed. She patted one of Jyn's hands and stared into her eyes.

"I think I'm done." Jyn said. "Anyone the wiser yet?" she jerked her chin toward the bath screen.

Rory reluctantly stood and went to look. "No, you're still good." She reported. "But you don't have to go yet Jyn, don't you want to enjoy the water a little longer?" she perched on the edge of the tub again.

Jyn stood up with a splash and stepped out of the tub. She was hoping to annoy Rory with the spray of water but the other woman didn't seem to mind. She giggled, then the sound caught in her throat. "Stars…Jyn." She was clearly enjoying the sight of Jyn standing there, dripping wet.

"Seriously?" Jyn raised both eyebrows and grabbed a scrap of cloth hanging nearby, wrapping it around herself.

"Jyn, listen. If you want to get off of this planet, I've got a ride set up five days from now. Come with me!" Rory stood too.

"You don't know anything about me." Jyn frowned. "Now, can I have my clothes?" she looked around but her stupid pants and Cassian's borrowed shirt were not in sight. Kriff. What had she gotten herself into?

"It's not that man you came in with, is it?" Rory sidled up to Jyn as if sharing a secret, or maybe just to be closer to her. "Are you a slave? Jyn, you can tell me. I can help you escape!"

"No, I'm fine. I'm free as a bird." Jyn sighed, taking a step back. Rory took a step forward. She smelled like cooked vegetables and spices up close. "I need my clothes."

"Those dirty things? I'll get you some new ones."

"Rory!" Jyn snapped. "I'm serious."

The tarpaulin moved and a dark skinned Zabrak male stepped halfway inside. Jyn yelped.

"Sorry! We're occupied!" Rory called out sweetly, shooing the male back the way he came.

"The room's occupied!" Jyn amended, not that it helped matters. She rolled her eyes and stepped around Rory to search the floor and the basin for her clothes.

Rory followed her. "What's your hurry, Jyn? You're walking like the ground grew teeth or something."

Jyn didn't grace her with a reply. The scrap of cloth was hardly covering…anything. She didn't know where to shift it against Rory's intense gaze.

"See here Jyn, stick around and guard while I take a bath." Rory stuck out her lower lip. "It's only fair. Like I said, there's not many women—"

"Fine, fine." Jyn discovered a bit of her brown gauzy pants, the tip of them sticking out from under a pile of other rubbish. She could have called Rory out on her trickery but instead she busied herself tearing the pants down the middle and tying one half around her waist like a skirt and the other half around her torso. She kept her back turned but she could hear Rory undressing and then splashing in the tub.

"Jyn, I have nothing to scrub with. Be a dear and hand me that bit of cloth." Rory asked in a syrupy voice. Jyn finished tying knots in her new get up and handed Rory what she needed. Rory sat up straight in the tub and grinned. "Come on, help me with my back."

Jyn did. She hardly registered the soft words that kept pouring out of Rory's mouth as she stood near the screen and took occasional glimpses at the camp outside.

"Jyn!" a man whispered. An accented voice she knew and loved well. Jyn nudged the tarp back and spotted Cassian creeping along off to her left. He had gone right past the bathing area.

"Cassian! I'm over here." She said to his back. He whirled around and stepped toward her. Jyn was pleased to see he was in new clothing. A long sleeved, navy blue shirt with a plunging asymmetrical neckline and black cargo pants, complete with a belt. He even had new boots. She whistled low.

"Cut it out." Cassian glanced around, but gave her a thin smile as he reached her. "You like my new look then?"

Jyn's eyes smiled at him in response.

"Heeeeeeey!" Rory whined loudly behind her. "You're letting in a draft, Jyn, what the hell!"

"I'll be right back." Jyn promised Cassian, watching his bearded lips part anxiously like he wanted to say something before she let the tarpaulin drop and hide him from sight.

"What's the idea?" Rory pouted and flicked some water at Jyn remorsefully. "Some friend you are, leaving me all alone like this." She stuck her chest out of the water. Jyn blinked and tried not to look embarrassed.

"Are you almost done, Rory, so I can stop guarding? I need to go."

"Humph." Rory slipped under the water. Jyn waited until she surfaced. She wasn't about to stick her hands in there and fetch the girl. Not in the spirited mood Rory seemed to be in all night. Jyn picked up the other woman's clothes and laid hung them on a metal pole nearby.

"I mean it. I've got to go." She told the basin of water with bony knees sticking out of it. Rory finally sat back up.

Between more vague storytelling, empty promises, and persuading, Jyn finally managed to talk Rory out of the basin and into her clothing. The woman draped herself on Jyn.

"I think my ears are plugged with water. I'm a bit dizzy." Rory explained. Jyn wasn't buying it but she put her arm around Rory's waist and half helped her, half dragged her through the screen and back into the shadows of the camp.

"What up with you? Did you sneak some brandy in that tub or something?" Jyn asked her, shaking her head.

"No. Spice." Rory giggled. Then she noticed Cassian still waiting for Jyn and frowned. "Oh. Him."

"Yes, him. Thank you for the bath. I really appreciate it." Jyn smiled thinly and tried to get Rory to stand on her own two feet. She was being dead weight.

"Don't go!" Rory moaned, clinging to Jyn. She pulled Jyn's face down to her level and planted a kiss on her lips.

Cassian finally came alive and sprang into action, stepping up behind Jyn. "You need some help?" his face was a mix of amusement and concern. Jyn blushed fiercely and shoved Rory away.

"Thanks, but no thanks." She mumbled, addressing both of them. She let Cassian lead her away, not daring to look back at Rory.

 _What do you think of this turn of events? This chapter poured out of my head in like 20 minutes. Maybe it's weird, maybe it's not. But hey, it's fan fiction so get some enjoyment out of it. I would appreciate some comments!_


	17. Chapter 17

Jyn slipped her hand into Cassian's as they walked through the camp. Cassian pressed it reassuringly and kept his sharp eyes ahead. Though he knew Jyn's mortification and discomfort about that situation with Rory, he didn't say anything. What a guy.

Jyn shook herself out of the past and took a deep breath. "So." She began in a light voice, "I think you should be a good sport and buy me new gear. I assume you got a hold of some credits?"

"You assume correctly." Cassian snaked his good arm around her waist and stopped beside a closed tent. They were standing apart from the little fires and few lamps in the center of the camp, so she couldn't see him very well in the darkness. "I walked further into the spaceport from here." He began to tell her his adventure. Jyn loved listening to his accented voice. "Well first, I asked around for anyone who may have been from the Citadel. Lots of doors slammed in my face—actually they were tent flaps—but I couldn't get any news in a short amount of time. I gave up after I found a working terminal. And some decent vendors." He kissed the top of her head. "You smell good."

"Thanks." Jyn leaned her forehead on his chest and sighed. "But it will be even better to feel somewhat normal again. Clean, and properly dressed."

"Yeah, about that, you keep re-appearing the most interesting outfits—"

Jyn cut him off with a rare laugh. "You're only jealous of my improvising skills!"

"I'm not knocking them. Your crafty tailoring could be invaluable for the Rebellion." Cassian's face broke into a smile and Jyn shoved him playfully. A dark shape moved past them and a pair of bright eyes assessed the two Rogues before passing. Cassian's arm tightened around Jyn. She was enjoying being this close to him, in the shadows of the camp, and so gave the curious figure a rude hand gesture. It moved on.

Jyn chuckled low in her throat as she watched the creature's retreating back. She reached up to run her hand along Cassian's soft beard. "C'mon Captain Andor, take me to this spaceport you're raving about."

"Impatient, are we?" Cassian's dark eyes sparkled. His other hand slid down her waist, resting on the small of her back. "What'll I get for taking you there?"

Jyn snorted with mirth and licked her bottom lip. She stepped further into his hold. "My continued company?"

"That's mine regardless." Cassian shook his head. "No matter how much sass you bring with it. Not a fair price."

"How about all the worldly possessions I own, which I am wearing right now? Except my mother's necklace."

Even in the flickering light of the far off campfires, Jyn could see Cassian's eyebrows shoot up. One of his best expressions. Good. It meant she got through to him in a powerful way.

"Really? Now that's quite a price…" he pretended to consider long and hard, swaying back and forth as he did and causing Jyn to rock gently in his arms as well. Jyn chocked back another ridiculous giggle at the fun they were having. "I accept." Cassian said firmly.

They had to both be high on something. Jyn could've sworn it. Was it some fumes in the air making them behave like this? Did Cassian hit up some den while he was gone? Did Jyn? What was in that bathtub? Were they just drunk on happiness right now?

Jyn didn't care at this point. She was euphoric and proud of it. Her life had been hard up until and including her mission with the Rebellion. She had nearly died several times. Why shouldn't she enjoy Cassian's love and attention, and the fact that things were finally going their way for once?

Cassian titled his dark head and whispered. "It's only proper to seal the deal, Miss Erso."

"Oh?" It was Jyn's turn to pretend to consider but she didn't get to for long as Cassian's lips were on hers. She sighed and melted into him and lost track of time. Cassian was the first one to pull away.

"We should go somewhere else and work through this deal." He grinned, black eyes flashing mischievously. Jyn's smile wouldn't leave her face. Her eyes danced back at him as they started walking towards the spaceport.

Scarif hadn't boasted much to offer up to this point, and it certainly wasn't trying to impress now with its main concourse of business and travel. The spaceport was one of the smallest Jyn had ever seen. And she had been on some pretty backwater planets. Cassian was leading her under a bridge and toward a two story high round building. The landing pads were not covered or sunk into the ground like a lot of hangers were. They were just durasteel platforms stretching out like the roots of a tree from the main port's bottom for ships to land on. The crafts would be exposed to the rain and elements, like the landing pad hosting that refugee camp they had just left.

As she cast her eyes around, Jyn's smile faltered. There was only one spaceworthy ship docked on all of Scarif? And even that ship looked like a bucket of rust and bolts that would fall apart as soon as its turbines shook to life. IF they shook to life…Jyn's frown deepened the longer she looked at that poor excuse of a spaceship.

Cassian tugged gently on her hand, forcing her to tare her eyes away from that monstrosity. He led her up a short flight of metal stairs and into the enclosed spaceport. Dawn was still hours away, but there were already a few people and non-humans roaming around, browsing displays casually. Unlike the busy market the two Rogues had gone through from the train, where they had run into Darog, these vendors were armed, and their wares looked cleaner and better quality. They were set up all around the perimeter of the enclosure. A small turbolift was set into the middle of the round room, leading up to the top level or maybe beneath the ground.

"I didn't explore things too long when I was here. I wanted to get back to where I left you." Cassian leaned toward Jyn. "We can see when's the next flight out of here and check on—"

"Hey!" a burly human with dirty white dreadlocks and scarred red armor strode out from behind his stall and came over. "This is the Elite section. Clear? We don't allow her kind in her." He pointed his finger at Jyn, his lips curling in disgust at her skimpy outfit. "Go shop in the outer market with the other fisherwomen."

Jyn bristled and inhaled deeply, intending to give the rude vendor a piece of her mind, but Cassian stepped neatly in front of her.

"Don't speak to my woman that way." He muttered darkly. He shifted, hand on his belt as if feeling for a weapon that wasn't there. Instead his fingers jingled the credits tucked in a pocket. That seemed to have an effect on the vendor anyways. He stepped back.

"Maybe I was hasty." The vendor growled, avoiding Jyn's flashing glare. "You don't seem to be locals. We don't trade in fish in here." Again he swept his hand around the spaceport as if showing off an impressive temple instead of a dive building.

Jyn gave the man her best scathing look as they swept past him. Cassian marched clear across the room, his boots echoing on the metal floor. They shopped quickly at other stalls and bought Jyn new gear. The credits flowed and Cassian became a small celebrity as other nearby vendors heard the sound of coin and craned their necks, hoping he would stop by them too. Cassian was spending like he was a rich man, and making cheesy jokes in an aside to Jyn that, with her at his side, he WAS rich. Jyn felt amazed and excited at the same time as Cassian lavished her with purchases. She was most interested in the weapon displays, and they both bought simple but reliable blasters.

Then Cassian rented a room and they took the turbolift up to the second floor, which was quieter, housing dinner, conference and sleeping quarters.

The two Rogues locked themselves into their room and sifted through their new and repurposed purchases. Jyn parked herself on the bed and immediately ate through a few packaged meals, and Cassian spent a long time in the sanisteam. Their room had full amenities. Well, nothing too expensive, but it had all the normal amenities a person could get used to living with after spending a month hiking on and under Scarif's battle crippled surface.

Jyn was still picking at crumbs when Cassian entered the main room again, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He laughed at the amount of empty wrappers lying around Jyn, the small cooking burner pulled up close to her feet, and the strong smell of charred food in the air. Jyn began blushing and hating herself for it. What was with her? Traitor body…she wanted to get used to seeing more of Cassian's skin. But her mind wasn't as tough as her fluttering heart and her eyes shifted shyly from the man standing across the room of their own accord.

"What's wrong?" the Captain was at her side in an instant, a waft of soft vanilla following him. "You looked sad just now."

"Nothing." Jyn looked innocently at her cup of caf. Then she looked again and a smile spread her lips. "Oops. Maybe I shouldn't be drinking caf before bed."

"I don't blame you." Cassian shrugged boyishly and took the cup from her, stealing a long draft. He sighed and smacked his lips. "Haven't tasted that in a while."

"Right?" Jyn leaned back and brushed bits of food from her lap. "We're acting like crazed animals. Like starved manias."

"Who's complaining?" Cassian leveled her with a long look and a small smile. "We've got the night, darling. Live like you're young."

Something about his deep voice and those last words made shivers ran up Jyn's spine in double time.

 _What do you think? I thought it was high time for some more fluff. Want more? Please review! How am I doing with Jyn and Cassian's little romance? I love it when readers comment._


	18. Chapter 18

Captain Andor wasn't a large man according to many of his human peers, but standing in front of Jyn now, looming ever closer, he seemed to fill her whole world. Absolutely every crevice of it. She stared up at him, forgetting to breath, just getting lost in his intense stare. His look was so determined, his dark eyes sparking fire and passion. Jyn wondered if her own curiosity and raging need was coming through her own eyes. His torso was at her eye level. His tan skin was scrubbed clean and she couldn't stop from reaching towards his stomach. Her hand gently caressed the scarred wound right above his left side iliac furrow before she felt him flinch and realized what she was doing.

"You're leaning again." Jyn blurted, smiling down and playing with food wrappers in her lap. Her fingers felt clumsy.

Cassian took a seat on the edge of the bed beside her. The soft mattress dipped with his weight. He reached over to sweep all the wrappers briskly onto the floor. His fingers trailed over Jyn's bare knees with the motion, making her remember again that she was still wearing a silly wrap skirt and bandeau top made of brown gauze. She could see how that rude "Elite" vendor in the spaceport had taken her for a hussy or a local fisherwoman. In fact, the opposite was true. Jyn was used to cold planets and wearing layers and layers of clothing. Being this exposed was just ironic to her.

"Jyn, I've got something to say." Cassian said in a low, serious tone, demanding her full attention. She turned to him, highly interested. Cassian's elegantly shaped brows were furrowed as he paused and seemed to gather his thoughts. Hum. _He's gearing up to say something big._ Jyn reasoned. She didn't dare blink.

"We've been through a lot in a pretty short amount of time." He said, looking down and placing his right hand on top of hers, resting on the bed between them. "With the Rebellion roping you into finding your father, joining the cause, and surviving Scarif. I want you to know—I want things between us to be, well—" his words caught in his throat. Jyn waited patiently, counting the seconds, hoping he would continue. "I want you to know that we have resources now. You can go anywhere you want, chase any dream you've been missing. You don't have to stay with the Alliance."

He inhaled sharply and fixed her with a long look, his eyes darting quickly to look into each of her eyes, hoping she'd grasp how difficult this was for him to say. And how important it was. "Jyn, darling, I need you. I've never wanted anything so badly in my life. And I don't mean this lightly. If you don't want to stay with any organization or agenda in this galaxy, at least stay with me."

His lips parted, his expression hopeful and worried at the same time. Never had he felt so embarrassed and vulnerable. He had failed Rebel spy missions and been cowed by superior officers, but never had anyone's opinion of him matter as much as Jyn's right now.

Jyn wondered absently why she hadn't passed out yet, from the combined frantic palpitations of her heart and the lack of oxygen since she was still holding her breath. She didn't know what to say for a moment. Then her body moved on its own accord, not waiting for her brain to catch up with it and she slid forward, scrambling into Cassian's lap. She took his face in both of her hands and began kissing him roughly, her hands moving to roam through his dark hair and down his smooth back and shoulders.

Cassian reacted quite surprised but gripped her hips to keep her from falling backward. He kissed her just as eagerly, relishing her soft lips and let her ferocity push him onto his back, landing them with a small bounce on the bed's surface.

Jyn continued climbing higher, straddling his lap and dragging her luscious chest across his as she chased him with hot kisses. Cassian was woefully neglecting the towel wrapped around his waist but that was merely a nagging distraction. He was considering the fact that Jyn's gauzy excuse of a shirt and skirt were coarse and uncomfortable against his skin and that things would be _much_ better off without them when Jyn sat up. As suddenly as she had come on to him, she stopped. Her whole body was trembling. Cassian lay very still and stared at her, wondering what was wrong.

"I'm sorry." Jyn said, her voice quavering a little. "That was too much, huh?"

"What?" Cassian's eyebrows rose and he levered himself up on his elbows to be closer to her, still enjoying the weight of her pelvis against his and trying to make sense of her words through the red-hot haze of arousal clouding his ability to think clearly. "No! Why would you say that?"

"I let my emotions run away with me." Jyn ran a hand over her hair and touched her healing nose, looking above his head into the distance. Then her gray-green eyes focused on him again and she gave a strange half sob, half laugh. "Cassian—" she buried her face in the crook of his bristly neck as he pulled her down toward him and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. "I loved what you said." She murmured, smiling thinly against his skin, tears leaking out of her eyes "But I'm afraid to be happy. To let myself be happy. You know I'm a mess, and you still want me?"

"Yes, of course! That's why I told you." Cassian lifted her face and made her look at him, willing her to truly notice him. "Jyn, I'm not offering you any tricks. I mean what I said. I want you, right here, right now. I don't care about your past." His thumb brushed the side of her beautifully sculpted jawline. He was spiraling down into her bright, wild eyes. Couldn't she see that? That he had fallen for her?

Jyn soaked in his loaded words, his accented voice. It calmed her. She stopped her body's shaking with effort. As she continued to study him, one of her rare, genuine smiles slid into view. She stretched out carefully on top of him and laid her left ear on his chest, right above his heart. She listened to its rhythmic but fast paced beating for a minute, as she collected her own thoughts. Ok, so Cassian was showing his hand, laying himself open for her. Her brain had been ingrained to be vicious, to always have a back-up plan; to be prepared for the worst so that she couldn't have her heart broken, be caught off guard or disappointed. She had been hardened by years with Saw, the Empire and many others that had crossed her path.

It was strange to have something as real and good as Cassian. It didn't feel like she deserved this. Other people had this kind of gift. Cassian wasn't just a shallow dream she could comfort herself with and then wake up from. He was sticking with her. He had planted roots and made it clear that he wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon, no matter what her agenda was.

Could she open up herself just as much, and let him _really_ have her? Everything? Even the raw and unattractive parts? It would be taking a leap of faith. She could back away now and keep things between them as they were. Not go any further. After all, she had a problem with trusting people. Jyn propped herself up on her elbows and looked into Cassian's anxious brown eyes. She could keep ruminating comfortably on her thoughts for days, but Cassian needed an answer. She didn't want to keep him hanging like this, if only because his earnest gaze was tugging painfully on her own heart strings. She realized many things about him, about herself. And she took the leap.

"Cassian, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me." She breathed in a rush, before she could regret her words or overthink again. She watched him stiffen like a man holding himself up from certain drowning, concentrating on her every word. Jyn bent to back up her statement with a light kiss on the corner of his bearded lips. And she plunged headlong in the rest of the way, since it was obviously the time for confessions. "I love you." She told him, revealing what had been stirring inside her for weeks now.

 _THANK YOU for the reviews! I got busy at work and during this break I've been agonizing over what direction to take with this story next. I want to do it right. I read the 'Rogue One' book by Alexander Freed over the last few weeks and watched the actor's YouTube interviews, trying to get some more insight into Cassian and Jyn's deepest feelings. This is the result. The book actually did not hint at any romance. The movie did a better job of showing what might have been between Cassian and Jyn and drawing us in. The interviews from Diego and Felicity are mixed. I felt strongly that I needed to show where Cassian and Jyn stand, instead of living in some sort of half "are we dating/together? are we not?" state,_ _so these professions of love are my own culmination._ _I've been writing "Stardust" from Jyn's POV until now, but Cassian's view snuck in a few times in this chapter. Does it work for you? Oh, and it's is getting hawt and steamy so I may have to open a window and let some of that out to keep this rated T... I don't know. _


	19. Chapter 19

His pupils dilated. Then Cassian sighed in relief, obviously thrilled that she hadn't rejected him. He captured her lips with his and at the same time locked his arms around her and rolled them both across the bed until he was positioned on top of her instead. His towel hadn't followed, having slipped off his waist with the movement.

"Aw Jyn." He whispered, finally breaking their long kiss. "That makes me the happiest damn man in the universe." He gathered she knew his intension well enough by now—especially since he had been the one to speak first tonight—that he didn't feel compelled to repeat those powerful three words back to her.

Jyn's expression mirrored his relief and joy. She was grinning from ear to ear. She had taken the terrifying, emotional leap and discovered something grand. Cassian was not disappointing her. He was not backpedaling or asking to slow things down after hearing her statement. In fact, he was offering her even more.

They hadn't broken eye contact, even when Cassian had rolled. Jyn clung to him now and dared to flick her eyes down to the space between their warm bodies. Cassian hadn't touched her with any part of him. He was holding himself over her in an impressive plank. But she could see all of him. Jyn's eyes snapped back up to his and she shuddered in heady excitement.

His felt her reaction and immediately frowned in concern. Jyn was no longer smiling, but her eyes widened, shining back at him with something he hadn't ever seen out of this woman. This amazing woman who had been through hell and back, who had first lost herself, lost her father, looked at him the first time with icy distrust, then eventually with the warmth of friendship and comradery. Now she was looking at him with more than curiosity. He could only interpret is as deep desire. And it made his head spin.

"I'm fine." Jyn assured him with a smile that set his pulse racing. "I'm excited. I want more."

"Then let me see all of you." He whispered, holding completely still and gazing at her with an outpouring of raw emotion. _I need you. Right. Now._ The red haze of arousal was back in his vision. Strands of his brown bangs fell into his eyes but he only saw her. Jyn hesitated for a second, then reached to untie her gauzy bandeau top and skirt. She tugged both swaths of cloth away and dropped them noiselessly over the edge of the mattress. Time froze.

Cassian looked her up and down but in a way that let her know he was slowly, reverently appreciating every inch of her skin. There was no judgment in his expression. No spy face. Whatever he was thinking he told her plainly through the windows of his eyes. Jyn felt her face flaming red as she blushed. She hadn't ever felt this adored or loved before.

"You're perfect." Cassian rumbled, his speech sounding a little slurred. His arms were trembling now as he fought to keep his body up. She was making him weak. He was surely drunk on her. Completely intoxicated. But he couldn't be concerned about that.

Jyn noticed the effect she was having on him and glowed with pleasure. She squirmed on the bedcovers and let her captain suffer for a moment longer, frozen like a statue. He wasn't doing anything further without her, so she threaded her fingers through his soft dark hair and pulled him down for a gentle kiss. Cassian moaned, cutting the sound off in an instant as soon as he felt Jyn hook her legs across his back and pull him ever closer to her warm body.

There was nothing between them now, and when he entered her they both gasped in unison as jolts of electricity fired through highly charged neurons. Jyn lost her head as she and Cassian moved together. They made their own past, present and future in that moment. Nothing else mattered. They soared and exploded together like stars.

Cassian held her against him and tried to catch his breath. It had been years since he had been with a woman, but Jyn…she would be the death of him. The very sweetest death anyways, if it came to that. He lay on his side and combed her hair with his fingers, enjoying her scent. His legs were still tangled together comfortably with hers.

Jyn was making a purring sound as her fingernails ran down his damp spine. She seemed to be remembering where she was again. Her gaze focused on him. He stared intently at her and she smiled that beautiful smile, not saying a word. Neither of them felt like talking. It wasn't necessary, not when they were this synced together and could communicate with body language instead. Jyn traced soft lines on his face with her fingertips and drifted, her mind cleared of everything but Cassian and how completely content he had made her. She pressed up against his warm skin and let her heavy eyelids drop.

Cassian figured he would sleep as well, but he couldn't follow her to dream land right away. He was too alert. He gently flipped the coverlet over them and tucked it around Jyn, being careful not to disturb her too much. He slipped the edge of a pillow between where her head was pinching his arm and the bed. He lay still but his eyes darted around the dimly lit room, double checking the state of their security until he was satisfied. He dismissed all nagging thoughts of "what next", "where next" and even turned off the "I'm hungry" signals rising to demand his attention and chose to marvel over their happiness instead. He watched Jyn sleep until slumber finally took him too.

 _Well this chapter is shorter than what I normally like to post, but I thought I'd get an update out here. Hope you like it. More to come._


	20. Chapter 20

When Jyn woke up she half expected Cassian to be gone, but was pleasantly surprised to find him still in bed, his arms wrapped around her from behind. They had shifted during the night. His chest was warm against her back and she could hear him still breathing evenly in sleep. Jyn smiled. _Why were you afraid he'd be gone, idiot?_ She chided herself. Was she really an idiot to trust another person as much as she did Cassian? She had never allowed herself to get this close before. She could never trust anything the galaxy threw at her, but now she felt like she had recently given Cassian a piece of herself—a valuable piece—to take care of. Why was she still expecting their bond to shatter at any moment? _Stop being afraid, Jyn. It's no way to live._ She considered that, and cleared her head of old, distant memories.

This was a fresh start. She and Cassian were a fresh start. They could do whatever they wanted together. She smiled and focused on the man behind her as he stirred.

"Good morning." Cassian whispered, his words tickling her ear. So he was awake.

"Did I wake you?" Jyn blurted quickly, feeling a flash of guilt about all of the depressing thoughts she had just stuffed away, as if he had overheard them.

"No. I sleep lightly. When you move, I check if you're ok. When I hear a noise in this room, I rouse. Must be the intelligence training in me."

Jyn squirmed and managed to flip herself over so that she was facing her captain. "Well this isn't the military, and you're not taking orders from anyone but me right now." She told him firmly.

Cassian's dark eyebrows rose. "Is that so? What kind of orders?"

Jyn giggled lightly, and cupped his face, running her thumb along his soft beard. He looked so serene, so peaceful. Not worried and distracted. The Rebellion couldn't touch him here. "None at the moment. I just had to remind you."

He leaned in and gently kissed her smiling lips.

"Mmmm, can't we just lay here forever?" Jyn mused, stretching her legs under the sheets lazily.

Cassian grinned, and his eyes sparkled. He looked so happy for a moment Jyn was unprepared for the morbid words that ended up coming out of him next:

"We could, but what about the rest of the galaxy? Should we really lay here while the war continues?"

Jyn propped herself up on an elbow and made sure Cassian had her full attention.

"They can 'continue' all they want." She began firmly, as thoughts that had been stirring all morning came into clear focus. "We deserve a break. We deserve something all to ourselves. I'm not in a hurry to run back to the Rebellion."

Cassian nodded almost imperceptibly. "I get it." And Jyn could see he meant it. She remembered how long he had been fighting this war, and how much it had cost him as well, and was glad that they were on the same brainwave.

"Good." She sighed, nuzzling his neck carefully, since her broken nose was still healing.

"So…is that my first order?" Cassian said mischievously.

"What?" she leaned back to look into his twinkling brown eyes, confused for a second until she remembered the conversation they had moments earlier. She pulled what she thought was her best serious face. "Oh that. Well, yes. Yes, Captain Andor, you should consider that your first order—"

Cassian interrupted her with a sharp chuckle and a barrage of kisses as they tumbled across the bed, Jyn laughing out loud the whole time. As they calmed down, Cassian spread comfortably on top of her, gazing at her, Jyn reflected that he was the most focused man she had ever met. Here he was, loving her with all his focus. He loved completely, not half-way or simply. She was incredibly lucky. She was rich in love, and finally—

Her stomach rumbled loudly, ruining the moment. Cassian lips curved into a grin.

"Here I thought I was the only one starving."

"You're starving?" Jyn sat up, concerned. "That's right, you didn't get to eat last night. I—we should have—"

Cassian shushed her gently. "It's fine. I wouldn't change a single thing about last night." They shared a long kiss and then he pulled her to a standing position off the bed.

"Let's see what scraps you left for me," he teased, fingering through the packaged meals and the empty wrappers. Jyn whacked him with a pillow and grabbing her new clothing, scampered to the refresher.

Cassian approved of her latest, actually human-intended outfit. She wore a billowy satin, dove gray shirt tucked into black trousers, and all bound together with a wide silk sash over her stomach. Hanging off her hips and ruining the rather otherwise elegant, womanly look was a utility belt stuffed with all manner of tools, including her new blaster.

Jyn grinned from ear to ear. "Do you like it?"

"Of course." Cassian crossed the room and took her hands, admiring her before spinning her around in a small dance. He had dressed too, back in his newly purchased navy blue shirt and belted cargo pants. Jyn screwed up her lips and undid a few side buttons, opening the shirt's neckline up a bit to expose his chest.

"There. We're stylish but practical. These outfits will cool us and still protect us from the sun." she mused, fusing over his collar.

"What! Is there a fashion pageant coming up that I'm not aware of?" Cassian feigned surprise and terror.

Jyn giggled at his playacting. It was so natural to giggle today, she thought to herself. "No, but we can stop looking like wamp rats and gutter slugs and maybe a pilot will think we're rolling in credits and we can get offworld."

"We don't even look military anymore." Cassian agreed, "But we still have a long way to go before 'rolling in credits' springs to mind."

Jyn was now finger-combing his dark hair. "You have a few scars. I think they make you look extra dashing." She argued.

Cassian smiled, and silently touched her bruised nose with two gentle fingers.

"Oh, don't bother about that." Jyn shrugged. "I put a cold compress on it this morning. It's fine." She enjoyed how she could read him now, without words being exchanged. Without the spy getting in the way.

* * *

 _It's good to be writing again! Real life got busy. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer (or winter, depending on what hemisphere of the planet you're on). I have a weakness for writing out characters' thoughts, reflections, etc. It's fun to delve deep into Jyn and Cassian and show who they could be as people, not just as SW heroes or action figures. I hope you like this! Some serious parts, some humor. Because we've got to have the humor. Please review! Oh, and I'm very sleepy, so if anyone notices a typo, feel free to contact me. I don't mind._


	21. Chapter 21

After they devoured the rest of their foodstuff, they set the room in some small state of order. Then they went exploring, because Jyn insisted that "although we don't have to run back to the Rebellion, we don't have to stop being curious." Cassian locked their room door and pocketed the electronic key as they headed out into the hot, moist air outside again. It was the middle of the day, and although the vendors in and around Scarif's measly spaceport remained, the refugee camp was nearly deserted by the time Jyn and Cassian reached it.

"Some of us have jobs." A grumpy looking man covered in blisters and warts scoffed, from the shade of his tent.

"We're looking for anyone who came in from the Citadel area." Cassian prodded, "I was told there would be at least two people from there. Are they here?"

The older man shook his head and retreated further into his dark corner. "You'd do well to hide, children." He warned in a gravelly voice. "Anyone who doesn't have credentials or a way off this planet will be made to work. I'm too old for them to bother."

Jyn shared a concerned glance with Cassian. New plan. Although they still had so many unanswered questions, first they had to find out who was now controlling Scarif. "Made to work"…what did the old man mean?

Cassian took her hand and took charge, leading them back toward the market. He and Jyn pretended to browse any time they felt too many curious eyes staring at them. The business of the fisherwomen and alien's market had a decidedly different feeling to it than when Jyn and Cassian had passed through it yesterday. Now they were alert. Scouting. And Cassian was back to gathering intel, only this time with the woman he loved at his side.

As they passed through alleyways, slinking from shade to shade they paused to kiss in doorways and look carefree, acting like a happy couple on their honeymoon.

"C'mon." Cassian murmured, pulling Jyn at last behind a sand coated building and up a rusty flight of stairs. Jyn kept silent, content to let her captain take the lead. She immediately approved of their new location. The roof was deserted and was a great vantage point. Lying on their stomachs, Jyn and Cassian watched the streets below for a long while.

After enough of observing humans and non-humans engaged in normal bartering, Cassian turned to the thoroughfares and metal transports. These were in short supply. Most everyone moving about the market did so on foot. But there, on the left was a metal transport approaching the Scarif spaceport. Cassian motioned with his hand to Jyn and, after making sure she was following, crawled on his hands and knees to the west side of the roof to get a better view.

Now that he was facing the spaceport, Cassian watched as the transport door opened. A dozen dirty, subdued looking locals of mixed races and species piled out. Just as they formed an assembly line to begin unloading a stack of supply crates, a burly Trandoshan jumped out of the transport and stood nearby to survey them, his rifle held at the ready.

"Jyn." Cassian hissed, indicating the lizard guard.

"I see him." Jyn nodded, scooting closer to him and resting her chin on the warm rooftop. "Those are the same aliens who were trying to manhandle us in that first village. The one you spent so many weeks healing in."

"Yes. They intended to force us into slavery." Cassian remembered. "Looks like they succeeded in finding other slaves."

"What are they unloading?" Jyn craned her neck. "Darn, what I wouldn't give for a pair of quadnocs right now…"

"It explains why we've been getting funny looks here." Cassian said quietly. "I'd guess that after the Imperials pulled out, these Trandoshans swooped in to salvage what they could from Scarif's remains. They may be the government here. Unless there's a puppet one we aren't aware of."

"We can lend credence to your theory later." Jyn nodded. "Right now we just can't be caught and put into slavery like the rest of those refugees." Cassian was sliding his body toward another edge of the roof. His sharp eyes scanned the horizon and found the direction the Citadel had once stood. Even without quadnocs, he could tell the ground was scorched black for miles that way.

Now that they had identified the one Trandoshan guard, Jyn could spot others stationed around the small city if she knew what to look for. The toothy lizards were well hidden at their posts, and all heavily armed as they observed the haggard looking people around them. What _did_ Scarif have to offer besides hosting an Imperial data bank of vile secrets, and fishing? She strained, trying to remember the file K2 had brought up on the planet during their daring trip here from Yavin 4. His chattering voice had only buzzed in her ears back then. If only she had paid attention. She felt an ache of loss for the sassy, reprogrammed droid.

Cassian was poking her shoulder.

"Jyn, darling." She turned her head to him. "Where'd you go?" his brown eyes bore into hers.

"Just thinking." She said.

She kept watching. The transport was unloaded and the crates had all disappeared into the spaceport. That same spaceport they had been rooming this morning. _Maybe not such a good idea anymore?_ Jyn thought glumly. They couldn't get a break. She had been hoping for more days of peace with Cassian—

"Jyn." Cassian hissed, pulling gently on her arm. There she went, daydreaming again. "Let's go."

She balked, blinking to regain her focus. What was it that they were "going" toward? A fight? She could use some exercise—

Cassian realized her hesitation and pointed. "The transport, Jyn. Let's follow and see where it goes." He walked in a crouch across the roof back toward the staircase. Jyn grabbed a handful of his shirt before he could get too far. She pulled and he fell back toward her, his expression hurt and confused.

"No!" she argued. "Look at our clothes. We look _nice,_ Cassian. We won't blend in with that rabble down there. And we have blasters. I just got mine and I'm not letting anyone take it away from me anytime soon."

Cassian assessed the situation for another second. She was right, of course. He was acting headstrong, his desire to plow ahead and find out answers overriding his common sense.

Jyn smiled as she watched his mind work. "You're a terrible spy." She teased.

"I'm not. Just infatuated with you." He replied quickly, scanning the rooftops. Jyn's smile widened.

"Is that the reason? I'm a distraction?"

"Yes. A welcome distraction." He reached for her hand. "Fine. We'll stay up here as long as we can today," He indicated a rail system in the distance, the same one they had rode last night. "And then I want to take that toward the Citadel area when it gets dark."

"There's no outbound train on those tracks." Jyn observed, squinting in that direction.

"We can ride it as far as we can then." Cassian shrugged. "Don't worry, I won't let you get separated from your new blaster." He threw her a small smile.

Jyn shook her head. "Don't make promises you can't keep." She narrowed her gaze. "I do like your plan though. I'd like to see if there's…anything left by the Citadel." Cassian squeezed her hand. They were prepared to know the truth, but they still both hoped that somehow, by some small miracle, they weren't the last surviving members of Rogue One alive.


	22. Chapter 22

As soon as it was dark, Cassian and Jyn slipped back into the spaceport and rode the transport up to their room. There they traded their nice looking clothing for dark colored trousers, vests and gear. Jyn's hair was already mussed in her typical loose ponytail, from the wind catching it all day, but Cassian still looked cleaned up. So Jyn helpfully rubbed sand taken from the top of her boots onto his face with a damp hand.

Cassian took a look in the mirror and frowned over the dirty streaks that coated his face and clung to his beard.

Jyn giggled and planted a quick kiss on his lips. "Oh, don't be such a baby. You're still my dashing captain. Only now you look more like rabble."

"As long as I'm your rabble." Cassian consented. They headed out and hitched a ride on the work train that was traveling parallel to the disaster area. Before their ride took them too far out of their way, Jyn and Cassian hopped off the moving car and took off at a run along the barren, black wasteland.

They alternated between running and walking and used an electric torch once in a while to check their bearings and skirt around debris. As they neared the location where the Citadel had once stood, the ground turned softer and began to slope downward into a gigantic, ugly crater.

In the dark they could still see the way. Even though it had been—according to Jyn's count—at least a standard month since the Death Star's untimely visit, small fires were still smoldering in the lumpy wreckage. The crater that the blast had created was horrendous. Nothing remained of the Citadel. It was if that tall, impressive structure had never even existed. Not a single shard of metal. Not a single body that had been trapped within it. Everything was disintegrated within the gaping crater. A long cone of torn up ground created by the Death Star's excess energy after it had hit its primary target stretched out in one direction. The lake that Jyn and Cassian had been beside was still a messy patch of sand and mud somewhere off to their left. Jyn still couldn't believe her eyes. Further out, lumps of mangled structures and starships that had likely been sitting at all the landing pads around the Citadel sat in deathly silence. Landing Pad 9 was gone as well, obliterated with the shuttle that had been Bodi's get-away ship.

Jyn's last thread of hope faded and she dropped to her knees. She felt something hard jab her shin and dug her fingertips in the sulfuric black silt to hold up a piece of metal painted orange. A tiny scrap of a Rebel X-Wing, maybe.

No one in this vicinity could have survived. There was no indication that Baze, Chirruit, or the other Rogues had made it out. And what mangled salvage that did dot the blast site had been thoroughly picked through by now.

Cassian knelt beside Jyn and put his arm around her shoulders. She laid her head against him and allowed herself to shake with silent sobs. She grieved for her friends all over again, even if she hadn't known for long. She grieved for the time they would never get back, for their incredible bravery, for the families that wouldn't get to bury them or maybe ever know exactly what they did here on Scarif. Hot tears sizzled down her cheeks. She felt she could let them go. She had to let them all go.

Cassian wrapped his other arm around her and held her to his chest tightly. He didn't say a word.

* * *

It took a lot of cloak and dagger arrangements, but the next day Cassian was able to set up a deal with one of his old contacts from Corellia. Jyn knew very little of the arrangement, and that was the way the Corellian wanted it. She didn't even know his name. _Oh well._ She thought. _Let Cassian make his mysterious plans. At least he had something good come from all his years as an Intelligence spy._

"He'll be here in five days." Cassian told Jyn once he had sent the last message. "We're avoiding the Trandoshans so far, but what are we supposed to do for five days?"

Jyn raised her eyebrows and grinned. "I have a few ideas."

They passed three days locked in their spaceport upper level suite, never leaving the room and having meals sent up from a vendor. It wasn't a bad arrangement as they got to know each other a _lot_ better during that time, but then they got restless.

Scarif had very little working technology so they still couldn't get news on what was going on out in the universe or in the galactic star wars. They didn't want to go mingle in the market for fear that those gorilla Trandoshans would force them into work.

Jyn hated lying low, and told Cassian so multiple times.

"Isn't there _anything_ else we can do beside walk around this room? Can't we try to take anyone with us?" she huffed during the sticky hot midday of day four. She stood on her tiptoes and peeked out of small slits in the metal window casing that Cassian had covered up.

"Jyn, love. I know it's hard, but this is the smart move. Believe me, I know. Sometimes I had to set up complicated identities and lay low for months on end. And I've already told you. My contact can't take anyone off world other than us. Fates knows he's charging me enough for just two tickets as it is." The captain talked big but he was pacing the floor right alongside Jyn. His shirt was off and his hair was standing on end.

"What?" Jyn whirled on him. "He's _charging_ you? Why didn't you tell me before now? I though you said you were calling in a favor?"

"Would it matter?" Cassian blinked at her. "What choice do we have? We have to get off this blasted planet."

Jyn stalked the other direction and wormed in her mind for a good argument, but she came up empty. Stars, she didn't even _want_ to fight with Cassian anyway. Their conversation was just stimulating and brought on by the stuffy conditions of their room.

Cassian stepped up behind her and slipped his hands around her waist. He dug his bony chin into her shoulder.

"We'll be clear of this soon." He murmured by her ear. "Then we can go wherever we want."

Talking about finances always made Jyn uncomfortable but deep down she was very curious to know how many credits Cassian actually had. He had spent a lot already on this planet, purchasing gear and keeping up the cost of their room—and extensive privacy. He kept assuring her they could go wherever they wanted. He was leaving it up to her. He could use old codes to try to find the Rebellion again, or they could settle on some destination planet.

"And speaking of that…do you know yet?" his breathy words continued falling on her neck.

Jyn grinned in spite of her bad mood.

"No. It's a big decision actually. For a girl who's spent her whole life wandering and running, I'm not sure where to go. I'm feeling a lot of pressure."

"Anything I can help with? To relieve that pressure?" One of Cassian's hands slipped lower down the front of her stomach.

Jyn brushed his hand away and darted for the other end of the room. He chased her and she giggled and had to fend him off until after a couple of minutes she gave in and let herself be caught up in his sweet affections.

* * *

They were ready on the morning of day five. Jyn was bursting with jitters but Cassian was her exact opposite, serious and calm as they crawled through a tight access tunnel in the spaceport.

They had scouted their route already but Jyn was still on high alert as they reached the roof and took off their jackets. Cassian had told his contact not to land on any of the six decrepit shuttle pads because they were all being watched too closely by the Trandoshans who still controlled the area.

It was pre-dawn. Below small shadows of people and aliens moved around in the early morning. Jyn peered over the edge of the round, metal rooftop to see them better before turning back to Cassian.

He had looped his thick jacket around a rusty metal data cable that was tethered to the roof and was flexing his knees. He looked at her and nodded firmly.

"Jyn? You ok?"

"Perfectly." She gave him a small smile and held up her own jacket. "I'll be right behind you." Jyn watched as he pushed off from the roof and went sliding down the cable toward the next slightly smaller building. He landed as gracefully as a cat and waited for her.

Pity for the jacket. It was brand new after all…Jyn followed his lead and traveled down the cable the same way. It wasn't a smooth ride, or else Cassian was a total show off and made it look easy. She got jerked around and almost lost her grip on the jacket twice as rusty pieces of the cable caught sections of the cloth. When she was only two meters from her love, she stopped moving.

Sithspawn! She was hanging over a street, kicking her legs. But the jacket was stuck tight. It wouldn't go any further down the cable. Cassian hissed in frustration. He couldn't call to her for fear of being discovered during the quiet morning but from where she hung Jyn could feel his fear for her was palpable. He rushed to the edge of the roof he was on and reached out his arms. They were still too far apart.

Jyn looked down and instantly regretted it. She looked up instead and gauged the distance, ignoring Cassian's frantic hand motions. Then she locked her legs in a straight line and started swinging her body until she got enough momentum to let go of the jacket and grab onto the cable. Rust shards stun her hands but she didn't care as she dangled and progressed hand over hand toward Cassian's roof. As soon as she was close enough for her boot tips to touch he grabbed her and pulled her tightly to him.

"Blazes, Jyn. You didn't have to practice trapeze at this hour to impress me. I'm already in love with you." He kissed her deeply, all of his worry and passion infused in the pressure of his warm lips.

She grinned as they broke apart. "It was worth it to see you make those hot, dark eyes at me."

They continued on their plotted escape course and just as the sun winked over Scarif's horizon a battered looking Correlian G9 Rigger-class light freighter roared into view and landed on a predetermined stretch of sandy beach.

"That's us!" Cassian grabbed Jyn's hand and they kept their eyes glued to the ship and its skinny metal extender arm even as motion scrambled behind them.

Trandoshans emerged from their posts and opened fire. Jyn and Cassian drew their blasters and fired a few shots back but they didn't aim with any heart, putting most of their concentration into running for the ship.

They boarded the Rigger rose, blaster bolts pinging off of its armor.

Cassian and Jyn laughed and leaned against the boarding ramp, catching their breath. The freighter flew for a while before a skinny and very grumpy looking human male clambered over. He poked a finger into Cassian's chest.

"What's the idea! You said nothing about blaster fire!"

Cassian's dark eyes grew chilly, but the smile didn't leave his lips. "Last time I traded favors with you I didn't charge extra credit either."

The pilot threw a quick glance at Jyn but she was clearly taking Cassian's side. He stood there for a moment more, appraising Cassian before he stalked back to the upper level, muttering something under his breath about taking easy jobs.

"Nice to meet you too." Jyn shrugged when he was out of earshot. "I still don't know his name—"

"You don't want to. Just be glad he made it, and in this Clone War relic to boot." Cassian glanced around the ship as if it could hear him insulting it before moving to a seating area which apparently doubled as a cargo hold. He pushed boxes out of the way to make room for him and Jyn to sit. They delved into the Holo Net that was set up on a short table.

"Cassian!" Jyn gripped Cassian's wrist so hard she left white finger marks. "They did it! They got the plans and blew up the Death Star…" she flipped through more carefully hidden news stories. The Imperials tried to cover it up but other planets knew. "Looks like weeks ago already."

Cassian grinned. "Worth it."

The ship shuddered as it went to lightspeed, and Jyn stood up to walk toward a viewing window. "But the cost…" she whispered.

Cassian followed her. As they stood gazing at the brilliant white blur streaking past the pane Cassian said out loud the names of the other members of Rogue One that they were leaving behind. A small tribute to them.

Jyn smiled and looked down to pull from her shirtfront the cord holding her mother's parting gift.

"I seem to be always letting people go." She said, fingering the crystal. "But I will never forget them. Galen, that cretin Sefla, K2 and his crass comments, paranoid Bodi, Baze's tough guy act, Chirrut telling me 'the strongest stars have hearts of kyber'."

Cassian took her hand and wrapped his own gently around it, curling her fingers over the kyber crystal.

"It's true." He nodded, his dark eyes boring into hers. "You are a star. The toughest and the most beautiful." Jyn smiled up at her captain as he bent his head to place a delicate kiss on her lips. "Shine on, Jyn."

* * *

 _The End! I hope you liked it! I took me awhile to decide how to wrap this up. I liked showing Jyn and Cassian as a couple and explaining things that happened in other chapters. Specific quotes like "the strongest stars have hearts of kyber" taken from the book and movie. The village that Jyn and Cassian spent time healing in was hostile because Trandoshans were taking over the planet. And the tunnels they got out in were part of Scarif's mining productions. It was known for its fishing and some precious metals. Truth. And although the Rebellion thinks they died, there's an open end if Jyn and Cassian decide to return to them. The Correlian pilot that got them offworld is unnamed because I wasn't sure if I should borrow a canon character or make one up. The G9 Rigger style ship is truth though. Anakin used to tinker on one. Again, hope you liked my story!_


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